Regrets. That’s something I don’t have a lot of in life; I guess I’m lucky – I refuse to think I’m that good. I have fewer still when it comes to this column. Today I want to address one of them.
Volume simply prevents me from covering everything I would like to, but that’s not today’s subject. There is one issue in particular I simply do not do a sufficient job of covering and in the greater scheme of things it may be the most important. That issue is climate change.
Back in the spring or early summer of 2012, I was contacted by some grad students in California who were looking for bloggers they could work with on environmental issues. That time period was challenging for me because I was working for then-President Obama. It was pretty much a 16 hour a day, seven days a week job as campaigns often are. I was lucky to crank out about one article a week.
One of the things I am proudest of in life is being a tiny part of that campaign but it did come with some costs one of which was I was unable to work with those students. I would have learned a lot in the process. I could have used, and still could use, the training. Since I’m not an expert in that field and the Republicans have given me ample fodder for other articles, I don’t spend nearly enough time on the environment.
Earlier this month it was reported that scientists – or as Republicans call them, those pesky people who deal in facts and reality – have discovered that the Antarctic ice shelf is deteriorating faster than previously thought. What that means is that sea level will increase at an even faster rate in the not that distant future, possibly by a matter of feet. For a variety of reasons, the majority of the world’s population lives in close proximity to water. When we talk about catastrophic sea level rise, we are not only talking about oceans. Rivers will flow in reverse. Seas and lakes will also rise. I currently live about one mile from the Neuse River. In Florida I always lived within less than ten miles of the Gulf of Mexico. When I lived in Buffalo, I lived just miles from Lake Erie and the Niagara River. Water, water everywhere!
Early this month another study reported that the Mountain West may have snowless winters in the not that distant future. I’m an East Coast guy and as such water has never been a big problem. The worst I’ve endured is an occasional summer lawn watering ban. Water is a big issue in the Western portion of the lower 48. Much of the water comes from snow melt. No snow, no water in an area that already experiences almost constant water shortages.
Both of the problems I eluded to above are extremely serious. They are not and will not be alone. We are not prepared to handle them. There are other problems/challenges facing us. Serious ones. I’m not discounting things like the pandemic, the economy or the domestic assault on democracy. If we allow climate change to go unabated, we will sooner than we think find ourselves with large and currently densely populated parts of our planet uninhabitable. We need water to drink, (among other things), but humans are not prepared to live under it for extended periods of time.
As I write this piece authorities are searching for bodies in Kentucky in the aftermath of an unusual series of December tornadoes. Normally the waters of the Gulf of Mexico are too cold to spawn tornadoes in December; not in 2021. Climate change is real and it’s coming after you regardless of where you live.
This is real and it is serious! I regret that I don’t write about it more often.
This article was written well ahead of publishing in order to accommodate my year end hiatus and is the property of tellthetruthonthem.com. Its content may not be used without citing the source. It may not be reproduced without the permission of Larry Marciniak.