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By Andy Rowell
As new Hurricane Maria brings devastation to Puerto Rico, the governor of the island, Ricardo Rossello, has asked Donald Trump to declare the U.S. territory a disaster zone.
He has said that Maria could be the most damaging hurricane to hit the country in more than 100 years.
With maximum recorded wind speeds of 140 mph and rainfall of up to 25 inches or even higher, Mike Brennan, a senior hurricane specialist from the U.S. National Hurricane Center has also warned locals of flash-flooding and "punishing" rainfall. He added that the storm would remain "very dangerous" for the next couple of days.
"Rainfall is going to continue to be a problem there even after Maria's center begins to move away," Brennan said. "Everybody there should be prepared to stay safe the rest of the day and into tomorrow morning."
In nearby Dominica, the principal advisor to Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, said "The island has been devastated. The housing stock significantly damaged or destroyed … The country is in a daze—no electricity, no running water—as a result of uprooted pipes in most communities and definitely to landline or cellphone services on island, and that will be for quite a while."
As Maria follows on after Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, there is rising anger in the Caribbean about hurricanes and climate change.
There is no one left on the Antigua and Barbuda islands after previous Hurricane Irma effectively destroyed the island's infrastructure and housing with 185 mph winds. All the inhabitants had to be evacuated.
The islands' prime minister, Gaston Browne, told IPS on his way to the 72nd UN General Assembly in New York. "Climate change is real. We are the victims of climate change because of the profligacy in the use of fossil fuels by the large industrialized nations."
He added: "These nations, that have contributed to global warming and sea level rise, have an obligation to assist in the rebuilding of these islands … Our common humanity, as citizens of a common space, called planet Earth mandates a spirit of empathy and cooperation among all nations, large and small."
The climate deniers in the Trump administration though don't want to talk about climate change or how our changing climate is making hurricanes more powerful.
Last week, Donald Trump said: "We've had bigger storms than this. And if you go back into the 1930s and the 1940s and you take a look we've had storms over the years that have been bigger than this."
The EPA Administrator Scott "Polluting" Pruitt added "Now isn't the time to talk about climate change."
But now is the time to talk about climate change. It certainly looks like our changing climate is playing a part, as 2017 looks set to be an unprecedented hurricane season.
According to the meteorologist Eric Holthaus, who tweeted:
There is still uncertainty if Maria will hit the U.S. coastline, but if it does, history will be made. And we are only in September.
The Washington Post's Chris Mooney wrote an article Wednesday entitled: What's scary about 2017's hurricanes isn't just their strength. It's how fast they're achieving it.
According to Mooney: "Rapid strengthening tends to happen when waters are warm, when that warm water is deep, when the atmosphere is moist and when there's little adverse wind flow that could disrupt the storm, according to research papers on the topic and interviews with experts."
And our changing climate is warming the waters and adding more moisture to the atmosphere.
So now is the time to talk about climate change. Pure and simple.
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Dan Gray
- Research shows that 16 weeks of a vegan diet can boost the gut microbiome, helping with weight loss and overall health.
- A healthy microbiome is a diverse microbiome. A plant-based diet is the best way to achieve this.
- It isn't necessary to opt for a strictly vegan diet, but it's beneficial to limit meat intake.
New research shows that following a vegan diet for about 4 months can boost your gut microbiome. In turn, that can lead to improvements in body weight and blood sugar management.
By Jeff Turrentine
Nearly 20 years have passed since the journalist Malcolm Gladwell popularized the term tipping point, in his best-selling book of the same name. The phrase denotes the moment that a certain idea, behavior, or practice catches on exponentially and gains widespread currency throughout a culture. Having transcended its roots in sociological theory, the tipping point is now part of our everyday vernacular. We use it in scientific contexts to describe, for instance, the climatological point of no return that we'll hit if we allow average global temperatures to rise more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. But we also use it to describe everything from resistance movements to the disenchantment of hockey fans when their team is on a losing streak.
By Mark Mancini
On Aug. 18, Iceland held a funeral for the first glacier lost to climate change. The deceased party was Okjökull, a historic body of ice that covered 14.6 square miles (38 square kilometers) in the Icelandic Highlands at the turn of the 20th century. But its glory days are long gone. In 2014, having dwindled to less than 1/15 its former size, Okjökull lost its status as an official glacier.
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Whose Grid? Our Grid! Chicago’s Campaign to Put Electricity Under Public Control
By Alex Schwartz
Among the many vendors at the Logan Square Farmers Market on Aug. 18 sat three young people peddling neither organic vegetables, gourmet cheese nor handmade crafts. Instead, they offered liberation from capitalism.
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I’m a Psychotherapist – Here’s What I’ve Learned From Listening to Children Talk About Climate Change
By Caroline Hickman
Eco-anxiety is likely to affect more and more people as the climate destabilizes. Already, studies have found that 45 percent of children suffer lasting depression after surviving extreme weather and natural disasters. Some of that emotional turmoil must stem from confusion — why aren't adults doing more to stop climate change?
Bird watching in the U.S. may be a lot harder than it once was, since bird populations are dropping off in droves, according to a new study.