Climate Change, Converging, On Us

THE HURRICANE, according to the emerging scientific consensus, was a product of climate change, at least in terms of severity. Not that it wouldn't've occured naturally, without any climate change. But it would have been much smaller, and the winds less violent. Helene, or whatever her name was, was a monster in terms of diameter, and in terms of wind velocity and rain amount. The notion that a hurricane could ever seriously impact western North Carolina with extreme flooding and wind damage to this extenst would, until just a few days ago, been thought impossible. Climate change is basic science, basic physics, common sense. If you add a trillion tons of carbon to the atmosphere, the atmosphere traps and stores more heat, and a warmer atmosphere can absorb and retain more water vapor, as water on the surface of the planet evaporates more rapidly. Hence, when it rains, it pours. Not only does climate change exist, it would be impossible, according to the laws of nature, for it not to. Plus, it has arrived, Climate change is here now. A few hundred miles west of the hurricane devastation, where I live, we are in the midst of what is quickly becoming a sever drought. In September, it rained exactly twice, both modest rain showers. No rain so far in October, although its still early. There is no rain prediceted, however, for at least the next ten days. Today it will be nearly ninety degrees today, and tomorrow, Friady, October 4, 2024, the temperature will reach the low nineties. The prediction is for it to reach the lower nineties every day for the next week, without rain. I spent the summer wondering what October would be like, whether it would be like traditional, normal Octobers of teh past, or a month in which the temepratures reaches eighty five degrees daily, a summer month. For about the last fifteen years or so, where I live, October has become a summer month. Summer in my area used to last about three months, weather-wise. Now, its more like five months. It is a virtual certainlty that many hurricanes in the future will also be gigantic monsters, larger in extent and severity by degrees of magnitude that anything we have ever seen. Whether there will be more frequent hurricanes remains uncertain, but indications are that indeed there will be. Most of the roughly one trillion tons of carbon that humanity has dumped into the environment over th past couple hundred years has ended up in the world's oceans. The warming oceans are putting more energy, wind and water, into violent storms and hurricanes. We, humanity, must develop technologies to remove carbon not only from the Earth's atmosphere, but from the oceans as well. The current trend is for the oceans, and all life in them, to die within a few decades as they grow too warm to support life. If and when that happens - and it is happening now - all life on Earth will die, including us. The science of cimate change is so simple that not only can anybody who took chemistry class in high school understands the workings and the reality of it, but so can anyone who attended grade school and paid attention dirung general science class. Climate change should be and must become required curriculum in all public schools at all levels. Instead, in many states dominated by Republicans, laws are being passed prohibiting the teaching about climate change in public schools. One of the core principles of conservatism is climate change denial, which, like conservatism generally, is disastrous for the future, and the present. Our only hope is education.