“The origin of civil government, is that men are not able radically to cure, either in themselves or others, that narrowness of soul, which makes them prefer the present to the remote.” — David Hume, writing in 1739
On March 11 and 12, a sudden storm dropped 5 inches of rain on Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“This summer in the Southern Hemisphere has been marked by deadly weather, including floods in Peru and Bolivia, as well as forest fires in Chile and a heatwave in Argentina.
On Friday, March 15, Cyclone Idai struck the city of Beira in Mozambique, in Southeastern Africa, destroying 90% of the city and killing possibly 1,000 people. (More about this in LeftyCoaster’s diary)
On Sunday, March 17, a “bomb cyclone” struck Colorado with wind speeds equal to a Force 2 hurricane and several feet of snow. Further East this became torrential rain in Nebraska and Iowa leading to widespread flooding called the worst in 50 years, as the ground was frozen and there was no place for the water to go. A dam was destroyed sending an 11ft tall wave through towns downstream. Bridges are out in many places, and roads washed away. In Michigan they experienced wind speeds of 60 miles per hour from the same storm. One can only wonder what effect this destruction of infrastructure will have on agriculture, especially after the severe downard pressure on prices due to Trump’s clever trade war. (More in loggersbrat’s diary)
All this in the span of a single week.
This sort of weather is “baked in” now. We can expect this, and worse, to happen more often, even if we meet all of the IPCC and Green New Deal goals of reducing Carbon emissions by 2030. What we can do is prevent it from becoming so bad that our current level of civilization is no longer possible within the lifetime of people now alive.
“Climate delayers are as bad as climate deniers” @AOC
“Lytt til Greta. Ta klima ansvar”
(Listen to Greta. Take responsibility for the climate.)
- Student banner in Longyearbyen on the island of Svalbard
Climate Change is hitting us everywhere at once. Our response has to be of equal scale.
"Once you have done your homework, you realize that we need new politics. We need a new economics, where everything is based on our rapidly declining and extremely limited carbon budget. But that is not enough. We need a whole new way of thinking." @GretaThunberg