Palm Beach Post editorial refers to "W hurricanes" from global warming

[highplainsdem]

I ran across this in Google News while trying to find more info on the situation in Florida, for the topic at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5185569&mesg_id=5185569.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2005/10/27/a22a_versteeg_col_1027.html

Boil water, sure, but with what?

By Jac Wilder VerSteeg

Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer

Thursday, October 27, 2005

<snipping most of the editorial, about the impossibility of following so much post-disaster advice, which is why pre-disaster advice is better, since it "sometimes can prevent the disaster, but even when it can't, it has a better chance than post-disaster advice of mitigating the effects of the disaster">


This is not universally the case, I hasten to add. One of the most popular pieces of pre-disaster advice was: Buy a generator. After suffering last year in the hot, humid aftermath of Frances and Jeanne, many people followed that advice. But now, as The Post reported Wednesday, those thousands of fresh generator owners greatly have exacerbated the fuel shortage. The advice for next year might be to stockpile more fuel — which will seem like good advice until there's a stray spark and some West Palm Beach hurricane survivalist goes overboard and lands his garage on the moon well in advance of the next NASA mission.

With hurricanes, the most basic piece of good pre-disaster advice is this: Put up your shutters. So why don't people put up shutters? Some don't want to go to all the trouble. But for most, I suspect, it's denial. The storm will turn away. The storm won't be that bad. But look at it this way: If you don't put up your shutters and the storm diverts or dies, you were lucky. If you do put up your shutters and the storm diverts or dies, you were lucky and smart. The same applies with other basic preparations, such as filling your car and stockpiling batteries, water and non-perishable food. Why don't people do those things? Denial, denial, denial.

Denial is the enemy of good, pre-disaster advice. Indulge me while I make a bit of a cosmic leap here and point out another form of denial that surrounds hurricanes. This is a record-setting hurricane season, with the most storms and the most intense storms. Yet many people refuse to concede that global warming could be at work. No, we're assured, this is just part of the natural cycle. We'll have a decade or so of this, and then go back to calmer days.

Maybe so. The science isn't in. Cutting down on greenhouse emissions might be the most important pre-disaster advice ever. But the Bush administration, to name the most obvious culprit, has been hostile to serious consideration of global warming. If all those generators burning all that post-Wilma fuel contribute to hurricanes down the road — think of them as W hurricanes — the current W doesn't want to know about it. Not adopting policies to curtail global warming is like not putting up shutters. You could get lucky, but you won't be smart.