Troubles ahead
Across southwestern Pennsylvania we have experienced generous amounts of rain over the last six weeks, while other areas are already being flagged for drought development.
This includes just about all of the southwest and the upper midwest where the heat has begun. International Falls way up on the border with Canada hit 96 degrees over the weekend and Phoenix had four days this past week above 100. Austin and San Antonio, Texas both recorded 105 degrees.
You may recall last year Phoenix had 61 days of 110 or higher and 133 days above 100. Its average is 21 days above 110 and this is being seriously challenged in recent years.
It’s hard to believe that folks can live in this kind of heat and future projections would cause me to think three times about wanting to live in that kind of environment.
Unfortunately like so many of our leaders these days little is being done to prepare for an even warmer climate. It’s about denial and by denying the problem leaders don’t have to commit resources.
Phoenix and much of the Southwest also face a growing water shortage problem. Simply put, too many people are competing for too few resources in an increasingly unfavorable environment. A recent article in Climate Crisis 247 suggested leaving Phoenix before everyone else does as the new climate is not sustainable to life as we know it.
Another recent article in the Tampa Bay Times addressed the real estate bubble in Florida entitled “Climate change is coming for Florida’s real estate, why don’t prices reflect it?” Prices recently have been buoyed in part by what some experts call a climate denial bubble. When you think about Florida we still get the image of the Sunshine State, vacations, the beach and Disney; but seas are rising, so are insurance rates and the real estate industry is trying hard to have us believe it is still a good investment.
At a current class I am taking at the University of Pittsburgh on our changing climate the maps on sea level rise and hurricanes certainly show a compelling reason that a cabin in the mountains of Pennsylvania may be a better choice as an investment.
Corporations and political leaders can deny all they want but slowly the evidence is mounting that we have a problem and humans are the cause, and the solution if we really care about future generations.
It is hard for me to understand why we are cutting monies and personnel to agencies like FEMA, NASA and NOAA when the recipe for more fires, droughts, floods, storms, crop failures and devastating heatwaves are in the making.
Many of the world’s children will live in the new climate today’s leaders are allowing to happen. Children born today face a horrible climate future and there is much we can do besides kicking the can down the road and continuing to deny the mounting evidence of our selfish behavior.
Each storm, fire, drought, flood, heatwave and weather event brings an awareness of the need for a change in thinking and behavior.