What Will It Take?

I’m not particularly shocked at where we are in September. Seems like Congress checked out for the summer, and the world kind of chuckled like a teenager getting the house while his parents leave town. Just to recap some of the things that changed. North Korea demonstrated an ability to nuke the contiguous United States, and a desire to provoke Japan. They showed off ICBMs and tested a hydrogen bomb nine times more powerful than anything they have tested to date.

Second, the western half of the country is burning down. Notably, one of the most destructive fires in Los Angeles County history along with the fire disaster here in Montana, makes things seem a little cranked up. Then you have the political firestorms. The pardoning of Joe Aripaio. Projected end of deferred action for childhood arrivals. Firing and hiring of so many people I lost track. But I Digress.

Lastly, we have Harvey, and God forbid Irma, that completely devastated the Texas Gulf Coast, and brings me to my point. While watching the news and observing politicians speaking on the matter at hand, it was telling that every time they were asked about climate change they deferred to the politicizing of the disaster, and how it was a terrible time to discuss it.

The issue with that deferment is that it destroys the dialogue. Talking about climate change is no more politicizing than talking about arms control in North Korea. This is a crisis, plain and simple. So we must talk about it, and preferably while we still have coastal cities left. Katrina, Ike, Sandy, and now Harvey are household names because they were epic storms beyond proportion, and fueled directly by warmer water and warmer air, both of which are measurable. Plain, simple.

The same can be said for our own disaster. Hotter, drier weather created a massive tinder box which erupted in flames across the state. Coincidence? I don’t think so, and neither should any of us.

So why not have the conversation? This is not a debate. Ryan Zinke even said he believed in climate change, and that the debate is what to do about it.

So let’s figure that out sooner rather than later. The least we can do is act like we want to live on this planet for a few more centuries. That is unless we are going to nuke ourselves anyway, then hey, who cares, burn the damn fuel.