November 12, 2018
The United Nations recently issued a report, the main thrust of which was to urge humankind to take immediate steps to mitigate climate change. Before we review what those steps ought to be, let's talk about why they're necessary. Anybody who's been alive and cogent during 2018 ought to know: monster wildfires, recording-breaking heatwaves, rainfall to the point of deluge, catastrophic typhoons and hurricanes, drought that produces scorched grasses, crops and tinder, all of which fuel further wildfires. Overseas, Greece and much of the Mediterranean is forecast to become a desert over the next several decades. Indeed, the shift has already begun. Extreme winds caused megafires in Portugal last year.
The number of wildfires in the western U.S. continue to increase in number: acreage burned has doubled over the last three decades. The American insistence on building homes in high-risk locales doesn't help. In Europe, wildfires have increased by 43 percent. Floods have been devastating this year, with hundreds killed in Japan, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines and Sudan. Closer to home, 66 people have died in the U.S. so far this year due to flooding. The property losses have been staggering. This is no isolated statistic: extreme one-day rainfall across the country has increased by 80 percent over the last 30 years. Thousand-year floods occur and re-occur within two or three years of each other.
Eight thousand six hundred heat records were broken in May of this year alone - just in the United States. Elsewhere, Northern Finland, above the Arctic Circle, hit 90 degrees F; the mercury hit a possible all-time high in Africa of 124 F; 106 degrees F in Japan was high enough to kill dozens of people; and 70 Canadians died in late June and early July because of the heat. In Germany, the rivers have become so hot that the fish are suffocating. Nuclear plants have reduced their energy production because river water is too hot to cool them. Twenty thousand scientists have re-issued a letter originally signed by fewer than two thousand decades ago. It warns that humanity cannot survive its present course of action
So: who do we emulate? The best example I can think of is the Amish. To wit:
- do without a car, drive a hybrid or electric care, use mass transit, or walk
- grow your own food, eat meat as little as possible (twice/week), buy locally, organically grown food
- buy a tiny house, live in a smaller house, conserve energy at the thermostat/wear a sweater, use plantings to shelter your home
- straw bale homes and brick homes are good alternatives
- solar panels on all homes
- community solar farms
- all products locally made, esp. clothing
- use LED bulbs
- recycle everything
- reduce plastics consumption
- reduce all consumption
Here's a project - keep adding to the list! Good luck to us all, especially our children and grandchildren.
With thanks to grist.org, usatoday.com and accuweather.com
The United Nations recently issued a report, the main thrust of which was to urge humankind to take immediate steps to mitigate climate change. Before we review what those steps ought to be, let's talk about why they're necessary. Anybody who's been alive and cogent during 2018 ought to know: monster wildfires, recording-breaking heatwaves, rainfall to the point of deluge, catastrophic typhoons and hurricanes, drought that produces scorched grasses, crops and tinder, all of which fuel further wildfires. Overseas, Greece and much of the Mediterranean is forecast to become a desert over the next several decades. Indeed, the shift has already begun. Extreme winds caused megafires in Portugal last year.
The number of wildfires in the western U.S. continue to increase in number: acreage burned has doubled over the last three decades. The American insistence on building homes in high-risk locales doesn't help. In Europe, wildfires have increased by 43 percent. Floods have been devastating this year, with hundreds killed in Japan, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines and Sudan. Closer to home, 66 people have died in the U.S. so far this year due to flooding. The property losses have been staggering. This is no isolated statistic: extreme one-day rainfall across the country has increased by 80 percent over the last 30 years. Thousand-year floods occur and re-occur within two or three years of each other.
Eight thousand six hundred heat records were broken in May of this year alone - just in the United States. Elsewhere, Northern Finland, above the Arctic Circle, hit 90 degrees F; the mercury hit a possible all-time high in Africa of 124 F; 106 degrees F in Japan was high enough to kill dozens of people; and 70 Canadians died in late June and early July because of the heat. In Germany, the rivers have become so hot that the fish are suffocating. Nuclear plants have reduced their energy production because river water is too hot to cool them. Twenty thousand scientists have re-issued a letter originally signed by fewer than two thousand decades ago. It warns that humanity cannot survive its present course of action
So: who do we emulate? The best example I can think of is the Amish. To wit:
- do without a car, drive a hybrid or electric care, use mass transit, or walk
- grow your own food, eat meat as little as possible (twice/week), buy locally, organically grown food
- buy a tiny house, live in a smaller house, conserve energy at the thermostat/wear a sweater, use plantings to shelter your home
- straw bale homes and brick homes are good alternatives
- solar panels on all homes
- community solar farms
- all products locally made, esp. clothing
- use LED bulbs
- recycle everything
- reduce plastics consumption
- reduce all consumption
Here's a project - keep adding to the list! Good luck to us all, especially our children and grandchildren.
With thanks to grist.org, usatoday.com and accuweather.com
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