We just got another scary climate report. So now what?
May 7, 2014, 7:34 AM | Updated: 7:47 am
The latest White House report on Climate Change is very specific about what’s going to happen not just in a hundred years, but in about 30 years.
White House adviser John Podesta says case closed: “What this report actually tell us is there no debate.”
Well, there’s still a big debate over the “Why,” whether our profligate lifestyle is responsible, but there’s no debate over the “What.” The experts are warning us that in weather as in politics, the extremes are taking over.
“Some regions like the Southwest and Southeast have seen an increasing trend for droughts while others such as the Northeast and Midwest have seen an increase in trends of floods,” said Dr. Donald J. Wuebbles.
“We’ve always thought of climate change as something that happens to someone else but now we know it’s happening to us, right now,” said Kim Knowlton, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
I remember coming to the end of a long climb in Glacier national park and wondering, where’s this huge glacier everybody’s talking about?
So what to do.
I figure most people will ignore this report – after all, the bad stuff doesn’t start for another thirty years. On the other hand, 30 years is well within your kids’ lifetimes, so I would recommend that if you are buying a piece of land thinking you want to leave it to your children, you should at least download the regional maps in the report and examine them carefully before you buy.
Pay particular attention to Miami, Tampa, Charleston, and Virginia Beach, where it appears that the next generation will be inheriting property that may be paid off, but will be seriously underwater anyway.