This is climate change.
For those of you who keep waiting for the “future” event, wait no longer. It is here, it is now. It will only get worse. Americans are now being killed in significant numbers by this phantasmagorical slayer from the future.
The climate deniers have led Americans down the homicidal path of continued fossil fuel use with the resultant increase of carbon dioxide sequestration in our atmosphere. Self-avowed deniers such as Donald Trump, JD Vance, Mike Johnson, Ron DeSantis and innumerable others of their ilk continue their rhetorical canard. Their self-interested and single-minded energy policy has in no small measure led to this tragedy and countless others around the globe.
Donald Trump’s policy: drill, drill, drill. His placard states, “Trump Digs Coal.” In the Carolinas, like a sociopathic automaton, he delivered a bizarre speech with a monotonic drone, devoid of empathy; however, his faux solemnity was nauseating. Concurrent with Americans suffering physical, financial and psychological trauma, the oh-so-empathetic former president lies about stolen funds from FEMA.
In the vice presidential debate, Vance acknowledged the tragedy of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, bemoaning the deaths from the deluge without acknowledging the cause. Of course, he cannot; his boss wouldn’t like it. Candidate Vance seamlessly glided to increasing American energy production. His staged “Hillbilly Eulogy” was crass, flat and uninspiring. Would he chant a different dirge if his own “three beautiful children” were dragged, bludgeoned and breathlessly compressed, under 6 feet of Appalachian mud and detritus?
In an awkward attempt to console Floridians, Ron DeSantis at the podium explained ex post facto what has happened to them. No allusion to the why. Repeatedly, DeSantis and his legislature have closeted discussion and action upon climate change. The guy is too intelligent not to understand cause and consequence, but for years his culture war electioneering has stuck his wing-tips in the storm-surge effluent, his heels so dug in, the question why is an apparition of his sorrowful doppelganger.
Of note, if all the ice and snow covering the Earth’s surface melts, Gov. DeSantis will no longer have a state to govern. I suppose he could transfer to the Florida Ministry of SCUBA.
What can one say about the House leader, Mike Johnson, whose own state is subsiding and submerging due to oil extraction and sea level rise?
Lately, I have heard a smattering of comments about climate alarmism, this being the usual reactionary rhetoric expounded when people are confronted with an extraordinarily unpleasant truth. That truth roared with inexorable ferocity through Asheville and surrounding North Carolina communities. If you do not find this alarming, please check yourself for a pulse.
What has occurred in the Appalachian hills of North Carolina is an event of biblical proportion that would make Noah, Gilgamesh and the citizens of Johnstown, Pa., shudder.
Understandably, the post-disaster mantra arises: We will rebuild. The quandary here is that you will be in the path of the same meteorological and climatic forces that just swept away your life and livelihood. (Ironically, as I write, a new Category 5 hurricane, Milton, is barreling toward the Gulf Coast of Florida.)
This is where capitalist market forces enter the discussion. The dunderheaded politicos and ideologues may refuse to understand the dangers of climate change, but the insurance market certainly understands. Over the past several decades, insurance risk profiles have changed dramatically, and concordantly, insurance premiums. In many locations, locals are being priced out of their communities by unaffordable insurance rates. In fire-prone areas of California and the Northwest, and storm-prone areas of the Gulf, insurance is becoming unavailable.
As any good meteorologist knows, the warmer the atmosphere becomes, the more moisture it can hold. And precipitate. And flood. Hurricane Helene’s diluvian phenomenon is a direct result of fossil fuel combustion. The fact that supposedly responsible people have turned this into a political issue is equally tragic and perversely unethical.
Floods are impartial, nondenominational killers. Sadly, the more money we spend on resilience and disaster mitigation, recovery and rebuilding are dollars unavailable for tackling the undeniable cause. We could fund and institute a national program, not unlike the Manhattan Project, for the research, development and upscaling of nuclear fusion. The proof of concept, after all, is blazing at the center of our solar system.
In this election cycle, climate change has gotten short shrift. These changes are dramatic, global in extent and rapidly increasing in intensity beyond expectation. With eyes open, anyone with average intelligence can see what is happening. So vote with your vision and intelligence, not your preconceptions. Your children and grandchildren will be ever so grateful.
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