As I suspect everyone knows now, Texas has been enduring a disastrous weather event that has caused huge power, gas and water failures impacting up to 14 million people. With a very high probability, this is due to human induced climate change that has caused warm air from the Asia Pacific area to move up to the Arctic forcing the cold air to drop down over North America. Kind of like when you push in on a balloon, the balloon then bulges somewhere else.
This is yet another example of severe weather events that we can expect more of. It also demonstrates that we are unprepared to deal with these changes even though, in this instance, the main Texas utility company said they did not expect to have much problem (a similar, less severe event happened ten years ago and they supposedly did upgrades to their system but I am sure subsequent investigations will find they did not fully do so). It is estimated that the cost of this event will exceed that of hurricane Harvey, so we are talking hundreds of billions of dollars, lives disrupted or lost.
On top of this, Fox, the state governor and climate deniers are saying falsely, that wind and solar are to blame as being unreliable, when this is clearly not the case. They are blaming New Green Deal advocates and whoever they can beside the utility providers who in this case were just unprepared or unable to cope with such severe weather. This kind of messaging is going to continue to throw up barriers to addressing climate change.
The point is, we are facing a new reality of worsening conditions for which there are no precise models and things might go bad in a hurry, whether it is from fire, hurricanes, floods, drought, hot or cold temperatures. Although history can give us some clues when calamities strike, the ever increasing population adds another variable that amplifies the impact and stress on potential recovery or mitigation.
So, wherever you might be, think about how to prepare. We live in a biosphere and none of us will be able to escape or not be impacted by the changes ahead. Time to roll up our sleeves and get to work creating a less dangerous future.
SZ