As we exit our own national day and holiday weekend here in Canada, our neighbors to the south are a day away from their big July 4 celebrations. However, the "celebrations" are likely to be muted in certain large sections of the country due to an unforeseen element: the weather!
In a summer scenario that appears to be precisely how scientists predict that global warming will affect the climate and change our lives, extreme weather events have dominated the news in recent weeks. The fact that it has been the weather that has opened the big TV networks breakfast news shows in recent days is either testament to the fact that there is nothing happening in the world, or, rather, that the major story is the weather. For sure, it is the latter!
A milder than usual winter and higher than normal temperatures in spring have played havoc in Colorado, where wildfires have destroyed hundreds of homes and firefighting resources have been stretched to the absolute limit. Many big fireworks displays for July 4 have been cancelled.
With drought covering almost three quarters of the country, and almost 2 million acres of land hit by fires, several states including Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Wisconsin, Illinious, Indiana, Kansas and Missouri are all feeling the heat, and fireworks displays are being cancelled on a daily basis.
In contrast, but adding no less misery into the mix, came the surprise mid-Atlantic derecho storm that hit the eastern states on the weekend that has left about 2 million people without power in sweltering heat, all the way from North Carolina up to New Jersey, and reaching as far west as Illinois. It will be days more before many of these people have their power turned back on, causing havoc to everyone's everyday lives.
There have been 18 deaths attributed to this storm, primarily from trees falling down onto cars or homes, and many are questioning why they did not receive better warnings as to what was heading in their direction. But this derecho, a kind of land-borne hurricane, had elusively built up steam and rather than heading out to the Atlantic as predicted, headed up along the coast wreaking havoc. The derecho phenomenon is a rare one, and we are not quite as good at predicting behavior as we are at other types of storms, it seems.
Although there will always be naysayers until the planet spontaneously combusts, one just has to invoke the global warming hypothesis into this equation. We are having milder winters, springs sometimes are being missed altogether, and summer temperatures have been erupting as early as mid-March in certain areas of the country. We are living on a warmer planet: one on which we continue to stoke the fires with insufficient regard to our environment, and recent extreme weather crises should howl like raging storms down the corridors of power in Washington.
The choice is relatively simple. We can go on denying global warming as an issue meritorious of concern, or, we can begin to believe that scientists might know what they are talking about, even if the whole issue is quite naturally an extremely complex one involving many elements and players.
It's funny how we seem to want to believe the science, when it's convenient for us or even absolutely necessary. When sick or suffering from a disease, we are more than happy to trust science and take those little pills that were developed over many years (usually a decade plus!) by scientists, and prescribed to us by doctors. Having said that, we usually only care about that science when we are already sick!
Ditto global warming and the weather. But the period for saying it's all blah-blah by science types, and we can go on with life as usual because global warming is a myth? It's coming to an end. The crisis has already commenced.
More than ever before, the weather and it's forecasting is becoming less of an art, and not only more of a science, but also more impacted by science. If we choose to ignore the science of the weather, well, the weather is going to keep on kicking our rear ends when we often least expect it.
If we can all be a little bit kinder to our environment, the weather beast might have its headaches eradicated and be a lot gentler with us in return. It's a win-win scenario, for us, and for future generations.
In the spirit of the date, here's hoping that as many people as humanly possible have their lives restored to some kind of normality by tomorrow, or the day after, or the weekend, and get to enjoy what July 4 is often truly about: not so much the date itself, but a celebration of home, family, friends and life itself. - Kevin Mc
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