Up In Flames

Red rain stings the skin. Santa Ana winds whip hot embers through the streets. Plums of smoke and aggressive flames turn California into a fiery apocalypse. Over 180,000 have fled their homes. Some join the “543,000 Americans” the New York Times said “fled their homes to escape a disaster and had not yet returned.” As blame travels in many directions, the real culprit continues its devastation across the US (and the world). Over 2,000 miles away in Oswego, NY global warming’s wrath rears its ugly head. The winter is either nice or cruel. The Copernicus Climate Change Service revealed “each of the past 10 years was one of the 10 warmest years on record.” Last year “is confirmed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service to be the warmest year on record globally.” It’s the first year “the average global temperature exceeded 1.5°C above its pre-industrial level.” This is a grim milestone for the world. Yet many future grim milestones are to come. The Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres published “in parts of the Middle East and North Africa, warming has already surpassed 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.” M.I.T. stated the importance of the two degrees Celsius threshold. “Scientists and policymakers have long agreed that global warming beyond 2° C above the pre-industrial average would pose large and escalating risks to human life as we know it.” Our planet gets hotter and hotter. It becomes increasingly unlivable second by second. In October the New York Times reported “Mortality from extreme heat could surpass that of all infectious diseases combined, and rival that of cancer and heart disease.” The 25-year megadrought in Southern California exacerbated the worst wildfires in its history. The Amazon has also experienced decades of drought. The National Academy of Science reported “the Amazon has experienced three ‘one-in-a-century droughts,’ and these extreme events are predicted to become more frequent and intense due to climate change.” At the same time, 450 scientists in Australia met in an emergency meeting. Earth.com published its conclusion. “If we don’t act, and quickly, the melting of Antarctica ice could cause catastrophic sea levels rise around the globe… Runaway ice loss causing rapid and catastrophic sea-level rise is possible within our lifetimes.” The animal kingdom reels from human-made global warming. The Financial Times reported “Almost a quarter of main freshwater species including fish, shrimps and crabs are threatened with extinction.” Peter Kalmus wrote in the New York Times “As the planet gets hotter, climate disasters will get more frequent and more intense.” He added, “the oil, gas and coal corporations have known for half a century that they were causing irreversible climate chaos.” Kalmus told Democracy Now! “This is caused by the fossil fuel industry… This is still just the beginning. It will only get worse than this.”  We know the solution. Stop burning fossil fuels. Tomorrow’s profit is not more important than the future of our children and grandchildren.

Anton Porcari

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