Tuesday, October 30, 2012

We Told You So.

Yeah, somebody needs to say it, I think; and as I peruse the international news today- nobody is.

A great measure of the effectiveness of the climate denial troops in squashing the dialogue.

That and the basic politeness of good people.  This would not be considered the best time to be getting all hoity-toity - about anything.  A whole lot of people are in a great deal of pain.  We should all just be quiet, and help each other out, right?

Except- that's what climate change warners (such as me) have been TRYING to do - for decades now. Prevent human anguish.

And here we are.  Yes, Hurricane Sandy is a direct result of human caused climate change, brought about by burning way too much fossil fuel, to power "economic growth".

Being silent about it- won't help either.

Big headline at the moment; Gov. Christie of New Jersey is cited by CNN as saying:


"Superstorm Sandy left wreckage in its wake 'beyond anything I thought I'd ever see,' New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said at a news conference today.

'The level of devastation at the Jersey Shore is unthinkable,' he said."

Except - it isn't unthinkable, nor beyond what we expected- it's right smack in the middle of mainstream climate change predictions.  Hotter oceans cause bigger storms cause bigger storm surges- floods eastern coastal US cities.  Duh.

So.  Maybe we shouldn't be shy about saying "We told you so."

And maybe we should start saying "You're a goddamn liar." to the deniers; regularly.  Right out loud.

Just to soften my harsh message, a tiny bit- I'll point out I have a long track record of insisting on people hearing the "I told you so", when it's appropriate; this is Smidgen, age 5 (now 7.5) - after "being silly on the stairs" - one time too many.

You see- Smidgen was the one who insisted on my writing that on her cast; she was eager for it.  Because?  She'd already heard the story, many times, about my writing it on the cast her big brother Beelar had to have on his leg, years before...

3 comments:

Stephen said...

Excellent point and well made. I've been disappointed that nobody in the MSM seems willing to talk about it. It's very much the elephant in the room.

Kaj said...

Reflection on how human activity with the dependency on fossil fuel creating problem for societies all over the world have been up for discussion several years. Weather related events like Sandy is one of the effects. US dependency on fossil fuel will not help the society to be more sustainable. US will see more of negative impact in all 3 areas of the economy, ecology and social areas. Many questions need to be asked regarding weather events and sealevel raise. Will the front concept of Sustainable City in US, China, Asia and Europe be sustainable when many of them are just in habour areas in cities? Read More then a drop of water at http://www.kajembren.com

Anonymous said...

I wrote a blog post about this several years ago. I wrote that anyone who denies the fact that our climate is becoming unstable and is, in fact changing, is 1. willfully ignorant 2. deliberately deceptive or 3. just plain stupid.

I stand by that assessment. And I am no less saddened by the sheer human misery left in the wake of Sandy, both here and in the Caribbean.