Dear Texas: Please wake up
Climate change
Regarding “Epic power fail: Why so many Texans are without heat and electricity,” (Feb. 17): It will be 10 years in May since I lived inside your borders, and I will never forget that summer as long as I live. It forever changed me as an individual. While adapting to your hot and humid conditions, sans automobile, I found my true self. I will always be indebted to you for showing me how strong and adaptable I am in the face of adversity.
Your situation isn’t a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. This situation was inevitable, and it will more than likely repeat within my lifetime. (I’m 34.) What happened to you was a human-made disaster resulting from an aggregation of human actions over decades.
All of this snow was dumped on you, a state not equipped to “deal” with such “extreme” weather, in part because the temperature difference between the equator and the Arctic has decreased significantly this century. If atmospheric temperatures were much colder in the Arctic compared to the equator then the jet stream would be less likely to dip so far south. Why is the Arctic so much warmer now? I’m glad you asked. The anomalous warming of the Arctic is due to decades of atmospheric warming from sustained, increasing CO2 entering the atmosphere. To be absolutely frank: The increase in CO2 is from human fossil fuel usage and human industrial-scale agriculture. It’s us. We’re doing this to us.
Dear Texas, I am saying this to you from a place of love: Please wake up. Extreme weather events will continue to batter your existing infrastructure at an increasing rate. Do you remember Hurricane Harvey? That was August 2017. Have you already forgotten how fragile your systems are to inclement weather? I challenge anyone reading this to research whether or not any infrastructure changes were implemented and installed after Hurricane Harvey. More importantly, I implore all Texans to demand more from their elected officials following this current Human-made Disaster.
I miss you, and I hope I get to “see” you again soon.
Carolyn Roberts, glaciologist, Buffalo