Comedians often are the first to draw attention to
disasters, pending or real-time.
“How many once-in-a-lifetime events is it going to
take in our lifetime for everyone to admit that maybe mad-made climate change
is real? Do you realize Hurricane Irma is
the most powerful Atlantic storm ever recorded. And that is exactly the sort of
thing that climate science predicts: in this part of the world, warmer oceans
will lead to stronger hurricanes.”
“What is it going to take to get climate deniers to
acknowledge this,” said comedian Trevor Noah.
Things got worse after he made this claim on his show last
week.
U.S. President Donald Trump not only disbelieves in climate
change he had proposed cutting disaster relief funds before it became
politically impossible to do it.
Trump already had begun the process of pulling the U.S. out
of the Paris climate change accords.
He has called climate change a “hoax” created by the Chinese
to slow the economies of the U.S. and other nations.
The Independent reports: “The world is going to be hit
by more
horrifying weather events like the hurricanes Irma and Harvey. And
it isn't at all ready.
“Countries across the globe need to start planning their
response to such events or they are at risk of only allowing rich people to survive
them, experts have warned. Global
warming is likely to trigger a run of extreme weather events, they say, and
like the recent hurricanes they may unfairly hit the poor.”
National Geographic reports: “The Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change says we can expect the
oceans to rise between 11 and 38 inches (28 to 98 centimeters) by 2100, enough
to swamp many of the cities along the U.S. East Coast. More dire estimates,
including a complete meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet, place sea level rise
to 23 feet (7 meters), enough to submerge London.”
It adds: “When large storms hit land, higher sea levels mean
bigger, more powerful
storm surges that can strip away everything in their path.
“In addition, hundreds of millions of people live in areas
that will become increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Higher sea levels would
force them to abandon their homes and relocate. Low-lying islands could be
submerged completely.”
Hours and hours of hurricane coverage rarely mentions
climate change or global warming, but does frequently mention that warm water
makes the storms worse.
Live Science ranks Brazil and the U.S. as the top two
polluters in the world.
Last week more than 1200 people died in India, Nepal and Bangladesh as heavier than usual Monsoons ripped through heavily populated areas.
ReplyDelete