Take note of what is happening in Louisiana
AGE gives perspective to life’s struggles.
For a long while, achieving economic prosperity at all costs took centre stage.
The future seemed guaranteed, premised on a healthy bank balance.
Now, suddenly, but not unexpectedly, nature is hitting back, and the USA is experiencing what life is like for people living inside the first phase of climate change.
Along its west coast, in California, after an intense heatwave there, as many as 560 wildfires raged out of control over the past few days, leaving nearly half a million hectares charred and many properties destroyed. The cost of the damage is presently estimated at $25 billion.
Along its east coast, Hurricane Laura is the worst storm Louisiana will have experienced in 150 years.
Climate denier-in-chief Donald Trump is witnessing the dangers of allowing too much fuel to build up in the atmosphere and doing nothing whatsoever to mitigate the problem. He is going to learn a very costly lesson.
Fifteen years ago, it was Hurricane Katrina that devastated Louisiana. That was the curtainraiser. Now, it is Hurricane Laura, the real thing. According to James Kossin, an atmospheric scientist at The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), storms will “continue to get stronger as the world continues to warm”. (Https://www.insider. com/hurricane-laura-climate-changewarming-water-2020-8.)
That truth is being exemplified by what the world is witnessing now. On CNN, weather experts are describing Hurricane Laura as precipitating an “unsurvivable” wall of water 6m high surging forward.
Humans have been totally reckless in accelerating climate change by doing too little too late.
Cape Town’s coastal areas will soon experience the devastating impact of climate change.
Knowing all that we know and witnessing all that is happening every day on TV, the DA-led City administration unbelievably blocked a motion I brought to the council to make a declaration of climate emergency as 1 400 local governments in 28 countries had done. This failure by the DA is going to cost Cape Town dearly and sooner than most people are willing to accept.
Take note of what is happening in Louisiana right now.
If that doesn’t truly frighten you, nothing will. At age 75 I know what was and, with dread, I am seeing what is going to be.
I have a very clear perspective on that. FAROUK CASSIM | Cope, Century View