Connecting Extreme Weather Dots Across the Map

[defendandprotect]

Connecting Extreme Weather Dots Across the Map
Talking about the weather isn't small talk any more.

By Janet Redman

I took a cross-country road trip in late June that became a race to outrun the triple-digit heat waves that have literally buckled highways between the Midwest and the East Coast.

The record-breaking scorcher was an apt send-off. As I weaved my way across the United States, I found the consequences of extreme weather everywhere I looked.

After the heat, the first sign of something unusual came in Iowa. There, every creek I crossed seemed to overflow its banks. Water pooled in cornfields.

By the time I reached Nebraska, radio advisories warning about bridges closed due to swollen waterways seemed routine.

Late one night, I pulled under an overpass between Sydney and Potter, Nebraska to find refuge from hail big enough that it cracked my windshield. There, I met an off-duty police officer who said he's spending more and more time cleaning up after an increasing number of tornados and micro-bursts like the one we were trapped in.

http://www.otherwords.org/articles/connecting_extreme_weather_dots_across_the_map

[nashville_brook]

1. from the article..."just too scary"

My theory is that it's just too scary. If we admit that these extreme weather events have something to do with a global system, it feels too complicated to do anything about or prepare ourselves for. If we accept that climate change is something caused by the way we consume and produce everything from food to fuel, then we also have to admit that we need to fundamentally change the way our economy works.

[defendandprotect]

2. It does call for a complete culture change ....

which was recommended by World Scientists in 1992 -- which was still late --

We've known about GW since mid-1950's -- presume scientists have actually known

for a 100 years that human activity was affecting nature --

But here's the thing --

We have 106 nuclear reactors in the US -- and many all over the world --

Think we should be fighting to get them shut down --

May make a difference between a "whimper" or a "bang" ... ????


Also, I'd always prefer to try no matter how late --


Have you seen any of the videos on "peak oil" -- i.e., few of us will be able to afford

oil at any rate -- communities are going to have to survive much differently than they

are doing now -- especially suburbs --

Imagine life without the car --



:hi: