In the span of about two weeks, Hurricane Harvey flooded south Texas with four times the total amount of rain that Tropical Storm Irene dumped on western Greene County, and Hurricane Irma, the most powerful storm in history to form in the Atlantic Ocean, is threatening to decimate Florida when it is predicted to make landfall sometime this weekend.
This may be presumption, or simply overstepping bounds, but climate change has to be factored in when discussing the frequency and intensity of these storms. More to the point, this is global warming. But don’t take our word for it. Listen to the meteorologists.
They say abnormally warm ocean currents are colliding with cooler currents in the Atlantic to produce massive, powerful storms in much the same way cold fronts and warm fronts interact aloft to produce thunderstorms, snowstorms and tornadoes.
If Irma stays on its present track and unleashes its full power on Florida, meteorologists say the storm will destroy so much property that the damages could surpass Hurricane Katrina. It’s no wonder families in Columbia and Greene counties are keeping in constant contact with relatives in Florida. Fear is growing that there will be many more casualties in Florida than in Texas.
According to the Bloomberg News Service, Miami residents are trying to keep their slim hopes up. Meteorologists caution that computer model forecasts longer than 72 hours are not carved in stone, especially with a storm traveling over open water.
Harvey and Irma, like Katrina before them, are capable of killing thousands and destroying millions of dollars in property. Storm surges wipe out beaches and cleanups from floods add millions to the cost of recovery. Harvey, and now Irma, are so powerful that forecasters are running out of scary words to describe them.
President Donald Trump and Congress can’t continue to deny the existence of climate change or belittle it by calling it a hoax even as the evidence parades before their eyes as one storm after another crashes into our economic heartlands. It’s reprehensible that men and women who call themselves intelligent can stand before us and pretend the science of climate change is “fake news.” Polar ice is melting, sea levels are rising and storms are getting bigger and stronger.
Climate change has to be addressed at the highest level, not dismissed as nonsense or put off because there is no profit in it. As of this writing, the people of Texas and now Florida aren’t experiencing fake news. The death and destruction around them, and perhaps to come, is all too real.
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