Year 4, Month 1, Day 20: If Weather Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Be Weathered. What?

The Duluth Tribune runs an op-ed from George Erickson, advocating that we, um, pay attention and actually, you know, do something:

Some people might argue the distractions of the holidays and the fiscal cliff made the New Year a poor time to address climate change. But neither of those issues was as important as the shocking examples of climate change delivered by 2012 — one right after another.

While the fossil-fuel industries have spent millions on anything-for-a-buck campaigns to continue the status quo, nature has been shouting at us — and often has gone unheard.

In 2012, the U.S. set more than 4,000 daily high-temperate records, and that was just in July. Drought spread across 80 percent of the country, leaving Lake Meade so low the intakes for Hoover Dam’s generators may soon have to be lowered, which would reduce the dam’s generating capacity. Across the West, wildfires blackened 9 million acres of forest, while in the North, Lake Superior reached a record high temperature. Now add the damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy and the abnormal onslaught of 39 late-season tornadoes that prowled the South on Christmas Day.

Sleepers, wake! Sent January 13:

Just as firearms advocates are always telling us not to discuss gun control in the aftermath of a shooting, politicians and media figures have been saying for years that while sometime in the future might be a good time to discuss climate change, we don’t have the political will to do it now. The NRA’s argument loses any moral authority it might have claimed once shootings start happening every day — and those who’ve been trying to delay discussion of the greenhouse effect and our future on a climate-transformed planet must abandon their position once it’s clear that such a future is here already. With superstorms, crippling droughts, devastating heat waves, and anomalous weather events happening every day around the world, ignorance is no longer a viable option.

If we fail to address climate change in a comprehensive and scientifically-grounded way, our children won’t get to address it at all.

Warren Senders

Published.