It was an extreme heat wave in 2022 that brought the hottest temperatures since 1901 to the Indian Subcontinent. Heavy rains followed during the rainy season … as the source of the moisture, the nearby ocean, was warmer. As could have been expected, floods followed impacting millions in India and Bangladesh. Floods in Venezuela also in April of the same year affected more than 85,000 people. It should come as no surprise when scientists reliably inform us that such catastrophic weather events are becoming more frequent across the world.
Venezuela has not been spared in 2023 either as heavy rains triggered landslides and floods in February causing widespread damage in the state of Sao Paulo.
Meanwhile, Super Typhoon Mawar is active in the Pacific. Unusual both for bringing an early start to the hurricane season and for its intensity — over 200 km/hr gusts — it is barreling northwest towards the Philippines and Japan.
Is all this a harbinger of a warming planet and more unsettled weather? One swallow does not make a summer they say, perhaps not even two or three. So the scientists remain cautious in their predictions, troubled though they may be.
Then there is the upper atmosphere which is much less dense. The CO2 escaping to it has very few molecules to bump up against so it continues on into deep space. Moreover, the blanket of CO2 causing our global warming also prevents the normal escape of heat to warm the upper atmosphere. It is consequently cooling and shrinking, thus allowing more of the sun’s rays to penetrate through and worsen global warming.
It leaves one with a sense of foreboding and uneasiness relieved only by the thought that it might take a century plus before the earth becomes a living hell. There is in addition the fervent hope that human nature would change under greater adversity.
Look at us now. Greed is good. It drives the economy. If people stop buying goods and services, we enter a recession. Yet all of this activity consumes energy and releases CO2, its by-product.
We love convenience and the easy way. That too drives our economy. Our demands for convenience can lead to mostly empty trains during off-peak hours. We prefer to drive rather than walk distances shorter than a mile. The median distance to the nearest food store in the US is 0.9 miles according to the USDA. We can walk that distance easily yet how many actually do.
Humans are also in competition with each other. To the winners the laurels, yes, but for each winner, there are usually many more losers … who also have to survive. Thus the need for cooperation, for working together and helping each other.
Perhaps, the broadly defined cooperative purpose underlying our actions could be one of nurturing earth. In work, play or any mundane activity, the methods chosen could reflect this guiding principle.
Its importance, of course, cannot be overstated if we are to push back against climate change and leave behind a planet that is as good or better for succeeding generations.