No Denying Climate Chaos

I live in Southern California, and a few weeks ago, we started hearing news about a rare hurricane, Hilary, heading our way. Concerned about potential flooding from the back patio into the basement stairwell and windows, my brother-in-law and I dutifully took a Saturday morning to find sand bags. We waded through agitated crowds at Home Depot, bought our full ration of empty sacks, then proceeded to a county facility to join another crowd of sand-scoopers. People were sweating, grumbling, passing around shovels, offering help, and generally being good neighbors. We ended up hauling and placing 45 sand bags. The storm did come, but the rains weren’t as bad as we expected. The basement stayed dry. I wonder how may personnel hours were spent prepping for the storm, not to mention on the mobilization of other resources, despite the outcome.
 
The weather has turned baking hot here again, and this week the nation turned its eye to the next hurricane, Idalia, which blasted Florida, Georgia, and other portions of the Southeast. As part of its coverage, the Wall Street Journal warned that a $100-billion storm, or worse, can’t be far off. This comes as intensifying hurricanes are contributing to massive insurance increases. Florida homeowners have seen their premiums triple in the past five years. A number of people are just plain foregoing homeowner’s insurance these days. “Some effects of the increased insurance premiums are already being felt in the real-estate market, with coastal and flood-prone areas seeing slower sales and canceled deals,” the paper reported. (Meanwhile, insurance companies are similarly abandoning homeowners in the West, where wildfires are intensifying.)
 
All of this is to say that climate change is here, and it is having an impact. And it’s not just the climate scientists who know it. I know, you know it, our neighbors know it, and even Wall Street knows it. How much longer can cynical politicians discredit, ignore, or deny it? As long as we let them, I suppose.
 
The end of this hurricane season will mean a ramp-up toward election season and the 2024 polls. Now is the time for people who want to see climate accountability to step up. It’s time to organize, canvas, and get ready to vote. Because another storm is always coming, and eventually our luck, if you can call it that, is going to run out.

Brian Calvert
Associate Editor, Earth Island Journal

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