The hottest place on the planet
When I was working for Esso, I spent 23 straight days on a drilling rig in the red sand desert of western Libya. The daily high temperatures were near or over 130 degrees, and once set a world record of 138 degrees.
In Kingsville, Texas a few weeks back, a record of 120 degrees was reached. I lived in Kingsville for two years, and June is certainly not the hottest month in south Texas. If August follows June’s lead, south Texas could easily see heat north of 125 degrees.
I believe temperatures in the 120- to 130-degree range are something we will see routinely in a few years if we continue to sit on our butts, and do nothing. Five years ago, most folks would scoff at the thought. Now, we’re breaking heat records daily.
The record temperatures are because of the warming of Earth’s atmosphere. If you don’t think that’s the cause, then join the Flat Earth Society.
But this is the scary part: The climate’s reaction to the warming of Earth’s atmosphere is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Almost all extraordinary climate conditions are exceeding what almost all forecasters thought wouldn’t occur for another 10 to 15 years.
As the polar vortex breaks down, an extreme event known as a sudden stratospheric warming leads to glacier ice flooding the oceans, rising ocean temperatures, record-setting hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, and drought, and destruction on a global level.
Will the doubling of the yearly number of tornadoes get your attention? Are you going to wait until it’s too late, and all you do is whine, “Hot enough for ya?”
This morning I was checking out at our local Home Depot, and the cashier started to put my two items in a plastic sack. I told her no, and I said in my lifetime I would never use another plastic sack. She seemed surprised, so I held up the checkout line a few minutes to tell her why.
About two years ago I wrote about the warning of Earth’s atmosphere, and although I’m sure some readers made some positive changes in their lifestyles, most didn’t; several contacted me to say the Earth has always had climate change, and our actions wouldn’t make any difference.
I concluded that the overall inclination of Arkansas citizens was they didn’t give a damn, and they weren’t about to make any changes unless it hit them in the pocketbook. The actions I predicted confirm my assessment, and we are rapidly coming to the point where not only are the changes in our weather patterns hitting us in the pocketbook; they are destroying towns and cities.
We may be reaching the point where action will replace inaction. We’ll know folks are paying attention when a shopping basket with 15 to 20 plastic bags is a rarity.
After my talk with the cashier at Home Depot, she understood creating plastic sacks adds to carbon in the atmosphere, and she asked about trees.
“Yes,” I replied. “Plant trees.”
I recently read a study that said if we plant one billion trees worldwide, as they matured they would reverse the atmospheric temperature enough to stop global warming. Each mature tree removes 40 pounds of carbon from the air.
We probably aren’t going to plant a billion trees, so as we try to slow the atmosphere’s warming, it will take a combined effort. We can’t be content to plant a tree and expect that to be all we need to do. Towns and cities for the most part are ignoring the problem, and bare parking lots and scraped development sites are like billboards that say “We don’t care!”
Planting a tree, I’ve heard, means you care about someone other than yourself. Every town in the state should require 25 percent minimum green space in retail development.
The list of things to do in order to slow then reverse the temperature of the atmosphere is pages long, but there is a key. If we can remove the energy required to create any of the one-use items in our society and reduce their contribution to carbon in the atmosphere, and encourage the creation of items which pull carbon from the air, we become part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.
If we don’t reverse or at least slow down the increase in atmospheric temperatures, productivity will drop like a rock. The amount of productive work I accomplished when I was working in 130-plus degree days was only a fraction of what I did a day at normal temperatures. Translate that into dollars, and it will hit you directly in your pocketbook. Be prepared to sweat or pay astronomical electricity bills, because it takes a lot more energy to drop your house’s temperature down to 72 degrees when it is 125 degrees outside. Are you ready to pay a $1,500 a month electrical bill, or maybe have a complete shutdown of the electrical grid from an overload?
It’s like standing on the railroad tracks and watching a very slow-moving train approaching. I hope we can generate the enthusiasm we need to be a part of the solution here instead of being part of the problem.
Get off the railroad tracks and do something!