Wake-up call for man who thinks climate change is a hoax
region is going to require billions of dollars.
Gruelling years, not days, lie ahead.
There are lessons to be learned, as there always are after disasters like this.
One of the most consequential is to what degree such storms are being made even more frequent and ferocious at our own hands by global climate change.
Each one is different, but Hurricane Harvey gathered strength after months in which winter temperatures in the Houston area and readings in Gulf of Mexico waters have been setting new records.
Last winter the average sea surface temperature never fell below 22.8 degrees for the first time on record.
It may take Harvey to send a powerful message to President Trump. Although that’s expecting a lot from someone who calls global warming a hoax. He would do well to pause to reflect on the possible connections between climate change and extreme weather events like Harvey.
Scientists resist drawing a link between climate change and any particular event. But warming can make a bad situation worse.
Rising temperatures warm the oceans, causing more evaporation, more moisture in the atmosphere and heavier rainfall.
Warmer seas also provide added fuel for storms like Harvey, making them bigger and more intense.
President Trump might also rethink his war on environmental safeguards.
Just two weeks ago he reversed an Obama policy in a bid to prevent government funds from being used to build infrastructure projects in flood-prone areas.
When calamity strikes, the world always seems to be looking in the rear-view mirror, looking back at its failure to learn from long-ago warn- ings. As temperatures rise and mega storms grow, to what extent should planners of modern cities prepare for once-in-a-century disruptions?
In America alone Harvey, Sandy and Katrina may be remembered as the wake-up calls of our age. They must be heeded.
Politicians around the world need to look ahead, to find ways to protect us from the seeds we sow. It must start with Trump. THE largest single win in American lottery history made a mum-of-two more wealthy than Beyonce and Taylor Swift combined after she scooped $758.7 million.
After realising she had won Mavis Wanczyk, who beat odds of one in 292 million, immediately called her work to say she would not be returning.
The 53-year-old, from Chicopee, Massachusetts, found out about her win while on what turned out to be her last night shift at a hospital where she had been for more than 30 years.
Mavis said: “I thought it’s never going to be me, it’s a pipe dream I’ve always had but my pipe dream came true.
“I’ve called work and told them I will not be coming back”
When asked what will be the first thing she does, Mavis replied: “I just want to sit back and relax. Go to my bed.
“I just want to be me and figure out what I want to do. “I’m scared but I’ll be ok.” People are more likely to be killed by an asteroid (1 in 700,000), be struck by lightning while drowning (1 in 183 million) or give birth to quadruplets (1 in 729,000) than to win the Powerball.
Good for Mavis. I bet she will have thousands of relatives she never knew existed.
Politicians need to look ahead, to find ways to protect us from the seeds we sow