Phrase of the Day: PERIOD OF CONSEQUENCES

My original idea for this post was to talk about Hurricane Harvey, which inundated parts of coastal and southeastern Texas, as well as portions of eastern Louisiana.  Instead, based on what is happening right now, my focus will be on global warming.

My memory may not be on point, especially since I don't live in a part of the country where hurricanes are regular occurrences, but I remember when hurricane season came around each year, there was usually one major hurricane (maybe two) and some smaller storms.  These storms would cause damage and flooding to varying degrees.  Additionally, a number these storms went out to sea or dissipated without rebuilding strength once they passed over land for a while.  There may have been years where that was not the case, but that is, in the broadest terms, how I remember this time of year.

In recent years, however, things have changed.  The hurricane season has changed.  Hurricanes themselves have changed ... a lot.  This hurricane season has been the most dramatic and devastating result of current global warming.  We can look back to 2005 and Hurricane Katrina and its devastation, including nearly 1,900 deaths.  There is Superstorm Sandy in 2012, called such as it was a "perfect storm"-like convergence of a hurricane (Sandy) and a nor-easter storm, which hit large portions of my home state of New Jersey, New York City, and New England area.  The first few weeks of Fall last year saw Hurricane Matthew cause massive damage to parts of South Carolina and Florida.  Other areas affected by these storms, including Hurricane Katrina, include the Greater and Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Bahamas.

Let us look at just the past month alone.  Beginning in mid-August and lasting through early September, Hurricane Harvey took a rather unusual track, making landfall, turning around, going back out over the Gulf of Mexico, and then making landfall as second time.

More recently, Florida -- along with the Antilles, Barbados (which was, in effect, rendered uninhabitable), Cuba, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Cape Verde -- was devastated by Hurricane Irma.

In addition to the hurricane itself, there were reports of tornadoes that popped up in various parts of Florida, just as they did during Hurricane Harvey.

In the history of record-keeping for hurricanes, there have never been two hurricanes in the same year that made landfall at Category 4.  Both Harvey and Irma were Cat 4 when they made landfall.

Something else that has never happened before is the existence of three concurrent hurricanes.  Along with the extent of Harvey and Irma and Hurricane Katia which hit the southern part of Mexico as a Cat 1 hurricane.  (This image was recorded much earlier in the hurricanes' paths.  Lee, on the far right, remains a tropical depression.)
                     

Currently, we have two hurricanes in play, Jose and Maria.

Jose is expected to do a clockwise turn in the Atlantic which would bring in closer to the northeastern coast of the United States.

And Hurricane Maria, which taking a more northern track than Irma, is still going to affect many of the island areas are hammered by Hurricane Irma.  As of this posting, Maria is a Category 5 hurricane and heading for Puerto Rico, which was hit hard by Hurricane Irma.

To be fair, any hurricane or tornado can bring a lot of damage, of course, but the more intense the winds and the slower it moves, the greater the amount of damage and loss of life.  The conditions for the creation and strengthening of hurricanes exists.  The resulting warmer waters from global warming are like fuel for hurricanes.  Time and time again, even hometown weather forecasters reiterate the warmer the water, the greater the fuel for hurricanes.  And yet, many people say the water's temperature is unto itself, with little to no effect on anything else.

Does this look like global warming is having no effect on water temperature and the amount of storm-related activity?  (Image from two days ago.)

Do I believe that the Earth gets colder and warmer on its own over centuries of millennia?  Yes, I do.  I also believe, however, that there can be mitigating circumstances that can retard or accelerate the heating or cooling.  Just like any science experiment, the same elements and conditions that produce a certain result can bring about a different result if any of the those elements or conditions are changed.  Therefore, I cannot accept that humanity's increased expulsion of fossil fuels has zero effect on the climate.  Just on a basic level, to say that it's impossible seems impossible to me. 

I have made the following argument before on different topics, but it also applies to global warming: Do the politicians and business leaders around the world have to be directly affected to a devastating degree before they address global warming as a serious issue that mandates action?  It certainly seems that way.  In the meantime, while it is not yet knocking on their door, people are losing their lives, their property, and their hope.

Tell that to the people of Barbados...

...or to the people of the Turks and Caicos islands...

...or to the people of Puerto Rico...

...or to the people of Florida...

There are those who refer to the Earth as Mother (Mother Earth), as the personification of this planet we have been given.  Whether you see it in those terms or not, the main point is that this planet is a living thing.  Along the lines of you reap what you sow, you get as good as you give, what you put in is what you get out, Earth is showing us cause and effect on a global scale.  Not on a small scale, as perhaps a remote tribe unable to comprehend it, but to all of us.  Ignorance is no excuse.  The time to deal with global warming has been here.  Are we at a point of no return?  There is some disagreement on that, but why err on the side of throwing caution to the wind?

There have been different periods in the history of the world, usually referred to as "ages" (i.e. Stone Age, Ice Age, Middle Ages).  I am not sure if this term has reached modern antiquity status, but it has been said that we are (were) in the Information Age.  (Perhaps with all of this information and the lack of global action, this might be called the Ignorance Age.)

What period are we in right now?
  


Terry