This October, a massive heat wave is gripping most of the continental United States. From Puerto Rico, images pour in of a culture under attack by climate change impacts. And it is broiling in San Juan, too.
Whatever you think about two Category 4 hurricanes hitting PR in the span of a couple of weeks, think how difficult it is for an island -- and its US citizens dependent on modern industrial systems for food, water, and the essential components of an economy -- to recover from this climate change catastrophe.
The impact of sea level rise around the coastal United States is going to put tens of million of Americans on the move. Many if not most will be unable to pay for the move.
The point is that climate change impacts are already ripping at the fabric of US society. It's happening, people. (Here is some useful information from the website, WeatherUnderground.)
All the more infuriating that one political party -- the GOP -- controlling Congress and the White House has pushed US agencies and policies in FULL THROTTLE REVERSE, away from rational governance in the face of the biggest test of our nation's national security. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is so paranoid walking point for Trump's climate change/regulatory destruction program, he's walking around with an 18 person security detail.
It is long past time for voters to muck out the GOP stable. We can't waste another minute in denial.
4 comments:
its called weather
Is it not funny? Global warming deniers in the white house, promising to keep the borders tight with walls so Latinos cannot cross, mother nature smacks into a territory, possibly causing hundreds of thousands of Latinos from Puerto Rico to migrate to the mainland. How funny can nature be? Hoping mother nature does not decide to teach us a lesson about Affordable Care Act.
They need to send the military into Puerto Rico with a general in command to help them. The crisis is too big for state and local government and do-gooders. We were pitiful after Andrew. The state and Miami-Dade county did not know what to do as they had never seen this kind of devastation. Their staffs were light weights, and could not implement orders even if they were given by someone. Once the military was deployed, things happened very quickly. The first day they were in charge, teams of soliders went door to door assessing each family's situation (need for water, food, medicine, anyone hurt or sick). US 1 and state roads were quickly cleared. In day two, they had a mobile food kitchen open in our neighborhood so we all could eat and get water. In Puerto Rico there are massive mud slides and roads don't exist anymore so people are cut off. They are going to need heavy equipment to cut new roads to get to people. With this kind of devastation, only the military is capable of managing things at the level of destruction. Puerto Rico now, maybe us later.
With climate change in progress, are going to have to deploy the military a lot in the future.
A lot of the citizens there will have to come to the mainland if they are to live. Mass migration and the movement of huge populations will be a continuing fact of climate change. People will have to move or die. Most will choose to move. We need to prepare for their arrival.
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