Remember the phrase uttered by Chicken Little: “The sky is falling?” Seems like the case with the increasing number of disasters due to extreme weather and climate change. Tropical storm Harvey wreaked havoc in Houston causing floods and destroying property. Mother Nature is wreaking havoc around the world! The red glowing sun above Edmonton is a stark reminder that the BC fires are still out of control and burning. Tropical storm Harvey threatens Louisiana and leaves heavy floods across parts of Texas. Climate change is happening around us so what can we do to mitigate the risk?
Evacuation and disaster fund
No evacuation order or state of emergency was declared for the city of 6.5 million. I can understand an evacuation of that scale would cause further chaos and panic, but some death toll should have been avoided. The governor could have done more. Trump came to rally them back during the aftermath, but you have to wonder about his competency and priorities as a leader. House Republicans look at cutting almost $1 billion from disaster accounts to help finance the president’s border wall. Ridiculous!
In other world news…
The global media are swayed to cover the tragedy in Texas, but what about other parts of the world? More than 1,200 people have died across India, Bangladesh and Nepal as a result of flooding. The devastating floods destroyed or damaged 18,000 schools. I can give you more numbers about this horrific event, but hopefully, you get the point.
Who is to blame?
Climate change is to blame for extreme weather disasters. Rising sea levels and emissions of carbon dioxide warm the atmosphere. Not everyone agrees with the theory: Trump ignores science and statistics, but hopefully, he will see the light. I recall a quote in late 2012: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” You really can’t believe anything he tweets.
Let’s do our part!
Weather extremes are the new normal which is a frightening thought. As Canada suffers its most damaging wildfire in history, Texans cope with massive devastation and flooding from tropical storm Harvey. Even if we drastically reduce our carbon footprint and adopt electric vehicles, we are playing catch-up. One thing we can take away is our humanity: the kindness and generosity of peopleis encouraging. All the catastrophes, disasters and extreme weather happening around the world is alarming. What do you think about extreme climate change and what can we do to combat?
