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I live on the Gulf coast. We take hurricanes pretty seriously here because we have to. They are a fact of life we have come to expect and we are fairly well prepared. If we had a storm coming in, as Sandy did, as category l, we would breathe a huge collective sigh of relief. It would do some damage and a few people would die, but we would be relieved because we know it could be a whole lot worse!
Am I trying to minimize the result and damage done by this storm? Hell no! Last I heard, the death toll was at 28 and I have no doubt that the property damage will far exceed anything else in history. The death toll will continue to climb and I wouldn’t even hazard a guess as to the eventual bill for the property damage.
So what’s the point of this diary?
It is a warning to you all. The effects of global warming are with us now and it is likely that before too long you will know from sad experience the difference between a Cat I storm that makes landfall at 80 mph and a cat II or III storm with sustained winds from 100 to 150 mph. What if Sandy’s storm surge had been 30 or 35 feet instead of the 12 feet (the last number I heard) you actually experienced?
Your politicians will make every effort to minimize the chances of that happening, aided by a compliant media that hasn’t managed to mention global warming hardly at all – if at all – in it’s coverage. Cleanup is going to be horrendously expensive and preparing for even stronger storms in the future just isn’t going to be a priority. Even though it is much cheaper to prepare for a disaster than clean up after one, nobody is going to want to raise taxes to prepare for an “unlikely” future disaster.
Because efforts to minimize that risk will be almost universal. Sandy will be called “The Storm of The Century” – meaning that it was a fluke and you can relax for 50 or 100 years before there is any danger of it happening again. No problem.
You have gotten a wake up call. The question is, will you take it or allow your politicians to hit the snooze button?
I’m afraid, because of the politics involved, that I know the answer to that question. But I would love to be proved wrong.
9 Comments
In case I didn’t make this clear in the body of the diary, my heart goes out to all of you suffering from the ill effects of this storm.
Of at least equal importance, I will support political efforts to get aid to it’s millions of victims in as timely a manner as possible, including casting my vote to oust Republican obstructionists so that the aid continues to flow as long as it is needed. We have had a lot of disasters in Texas of late and the rest of the country rushed to our aid. We all want to show you that we haven’t forgotten.
Hi UEO, gotta admit I clicked on this thinking, um, what an annoying person, but after reading (and rec’ing) I say yes, yes and yes. The damage will be minimized, *nobody* in the MSM is talking about the root causes of global climate disruption, and if anything gets done it will be by dint of much screaming. No, it will be a miracle.
I believe we will all boil to death before TPTB address the fossil fuel problem. I am afraid that the only way to actually *do* anything is by an end run around govt and corps — and then they will outlaw solar panels on roofs, as was the case in my city from the 70′s to just a few years back.
Oh, I mean to say that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it — heh, solar disobedience! I like it!
Thanks for the kind words. Frankly I don’t have a lot of hope that warnings after this storm will be heeded. It will probably take another big one to convince the politicos and the citizenry that preventative action must be taken if lives and property are to be spared. I just think it will be necessary for the crescendo of voices screaming we warned about this; WE TOLD YOU SO to become deafening before any real action will be taken.
I sure hope I’m wrong about that.
Yeah, it looks like not much (except the climate) is likely to change anytime soon. But, do you think They will be able to ignore/hide it the reactors melt down? Ho, so noticeable!!!
But perhaps I underestimate the power of the (woompah woompah woompah these are not the climate change causes you have been looking for…).
What? Did someone say something?
Considering the actions our government took after Fukishima (shutting down radiation monitoring on the West Coast and other actions taken to hush up/render impossible accurate reporting on that disaster) if something like that happened, the feds would likely ban Geiger counters and other radiation detection devices. Radiation releases would be highly classified and discussing them publicly would likely get you treated like Bradley Manning.
That was kind of snarky – not really a serious answer. I think.
Sorry about the delay in responding, but no, not snark at all. Our current (Harper) govt here in Canada has been waging an unceasing war on facts. For instance:
– theyclosed down the Experimental Lakes Area project which studied the effects of water pollution for 40 years.
– they ‘defunded’ a number of women’s groups, many of which did direct research and maintained databases on rape, domestic violence, women’s income levels, and all of which kept stats on their own work.
– most telling to me, they changed most of our Census essentially all of the economic questions, from mandatory to optional, thereby rendering it *unreliable*.
You can’t make, or fight, policy without facts. And they are doing their utmost to make sure we don’t have any.
King Lear noted that “Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad”, but blind works too.
Oh, forgot link to the women’s groups defunding, it is here.