Risk to Grandchildren Grows as US Right Wing Blunders on Costs to Try to Curb Climate Change
$50B Damages from Hurricane Ian Ridicule Right Wing Claim of Pay Limit of $30B
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Title: Risk to Grandchildren Grows as US Right Wing Blunders on Costs to Try to Curb Climate Change
Subtitle: $50B Damages from Hurricane Ian Ridicule Right Wing Claim of Pay Limit of $30B
As the 2022 midterm election approaches, recent US federal legislation has authorized only $30 Billion per year to fight climate change. All Republican US senators and two Democratic US senators opposed spending more. But dwarfing that $30B, in September 2022 climate change-affected Hurricane Ian caused $42 Billion to $57 Billion in property damage and at least 85 deaths.[i]
Hurricane Ian Damage, September 2022
Credit: depositphotos stock-photo-severely-damaged-house-hurricane-ian
That $42–$57 Billion is not all that shows the gross folly of saying the feds can only spend $30 Billion. “The U.S. was hit with 15 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the first nine months of the year, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information,” reports NOAA on October 11, 2022.[ii]
Climate change events pose an ever-increasing threat to the future of today’s grandchildren. The risk includes death and destruction. For, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) clearly warned in 2018 that the world’s population has 12 years in which to take serious steps including reduction of fossil fuel use, to curb climate change.[iv]
US government has now squandered four years.
US leaders will be in their graves from old age, when the grandchildren of today face the result of their failure.
For, tipping points are approaching in systems such as polar ice cap reflection and in ocean currents. When the tipping points hit, atmospheric disturbances will erupt in catastrophic ways. The National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explains:[iii]
Basically tipping points are small changes within the climate system that can change a fairly stable system to a very different state. Similar to a wine glass tipping over, wine is spilt from the glass as the tipping event occurs and standing up the glass will not put the wine back.
Some of today’s grandchildren see what’s coming and do not like it.
Photo: Sign held by youth at climate demonstration.
Pexels.com
Like the children who see it as cruel that the right wing opposes the US government spending enough to seriously help curb climate change, Professor Noam Chomsky says:
In the approaching November 2022 elections, who will US voters choose? Leaders who have opposed spending over $30 Billion per year, an amount now dwarfed by damages caused by climate change in Hurricane Ian alone? For the risk is on today’s grandchildren. US senators and voters who ignore that are like the captain of the sinking Sewol Ferry. He told the children to be calm and stay below decks. Then he got off the boat. And, 254 children drowned.
[i] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hurricane-ian-damage-death-toll-latest-snapshot-florida-impact-2022-10-03/ PROPERTY DAMAGE Insurers are anticipating between $42 billion and $57 billion in losses
Hurricane Ian: Aerial Imagery National Geodetic Survey damage assessment imagery available online. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sep22/ngs-storm-imagery-ian.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-ian-climate-change-rapid-intensification/ Gina Martinez, CBS News Sept 30, 2022.
[ii] https://www.noaa.gov/news/ian-is-15th-billion-dollar-disaster-year-so-far
[iii] Feedack loops, tipping points. https://gml.noaa.gov/education/info_activities/pdfs/TBI_understanding_feedback_loops.pdf ----
[iv] https://www.vox.com/2018/10/8/17948832/climate-change-global-warming-un-ipcc-report
Umair Irfan (Oct 8, 2018). Report: we have just 12 years to limit devastating global warming. A UN panel of scientists says every bit of warming matters, and we’re almost out of time to keep it in check.