Monday, February 17, 2014
It's snowing again this morning here in the Twin Cities. This is not that surprising. It's February after all. We've had over forty mornings when the low temperature was below 0F; that is surprising. A local news story yesterday noted that Duluth, Minnesota has now had sixty (!) mornings below 0F this winter. This is so surprising as to be record breaking.
The weather across the world has run amok. New Orleans had an ice storm. Brownsville, Texas, on the Mexican border, had a night of freezing rain in late January. Roses are blooming in Germany in February. Parts of Great Britain have been flooding due to persistent rain. Meanwhile, in California, people might literally soon be tempted to start doing rain dances. I looked at an article on Slate and learned some frightening statistics: the entire United States West Coast (yes all the way from San Diego, California to the Canadian border) would need anywhere from eighteen to THIRTY-SIX INCHES of rain to emerge from drought. Thirty-six inches of rain is equivalent to three feet of rain...also known as waist deep for people approximately six feet tall. That is an incredible volume of water.
Alaska has essentially had no winter. This far northern region famed for its bitter winters has been a virtual getaway for warmth according to its own standards. Parts of the state have had 60F weather...in winter! Meanwhile Miami, Florida had at least one morning this winter when the wind chill was near freezing.
This winter has indeed been memorable. When forest fires are scorching California in January you know that something is seriously weird. I shudder to think how much of the state of California's forests may burn to the ground before the next rainy season of 2014-2015. What if there is again no rainy season? The state of California is an economic powerhouse. The diversity of economic sectors, technological innovation and diverse variety of natural landscapes (from the deserts of the Palm Springs area to the mighty redwoods of Humboldt and Del Norte counties) make California an amazing place to visit, work and live. But I'm starting to get the impression that the amount of human development there is soon going to seem a bit excessive. Indeed, if the current drought lasts for another year or more the disruption to the local and global economy could prove quite severe.
And yet despite our notably weird weather (many of the hottest years of the last century have occurred in the last ten years...just google the term "ten hottest years on record") the denial of humanity's contribution to climate change goes on and on. I read that President Obama is apparently going to be going to California and proposing some sort of climate resilience fund. Here's another thought: If we want to have a resilient climate in the long term (ie beyond that of our own lives and children's lives) we would be wise to stop loading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases at a rate that is geologically unprecedented. I think an important part of this phenomenon of climate change and the role we humans are playing in it is the distorted thinking process many people are using when they consider the issue. We are changing the fundamental cycles of the very planet on a time scale not commensurate with the timelines they typically unfold in. In a mere century we have released so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that its release dwarfs the changes that previously would typically unfold over many, many millennia. Read that statement again and try to comprehend what I am saying if you cannot. What we are doing is unprecedented.
So why am I writing about climate change in a blog focused on PTSD? Because our continual journey down this road of overloading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases and thereby changing the planet's atmospheric chemistry in a 'geologic second' could very likely result in such disruption to our global economy and lives that humanity as a whole might experience a collective version of PTSD. Do I sound hyperbolic? Maybe I do. But if you are reading this and skeptical you would be wise to first do some serious reading on the subject.
I don't lie awake at night having horrible nightmares about what the world of 2050 may be like but I do wonder nonetheless enough about it. We as a species need to awaken to the impact we are having on our world at large. I remember reading an article in the Economist a few years ago in which the current time period had been named the Anthropocene. The term is basically a nod to the immense power that the human species now possesses to reshape the very planet itself. Not until the last century did we possess such technological power. Now we do. And I'm not convinced we are very ready for it. Are we drifting towards a preventable self-immolation? I wonder. I wonder often.
None of us will get out of this life alive. So why can't we as a species stop hating and killing one another? We are greater when we love and support one another as compared to destroying and undermining one another. What happens to 'others' effectively impacts us...in ways great and small.
If you are feeling stressed out...or even more stressed out by reading this...consider looking at this resource.
Be well. Live well. Sleep well. Dream well.
It's snowing again this morning here in the Twin Cities. This is not that surprising. It's February after all. We've had over forty mornings when the low temperature was below 0F; that is surprising. A local news story yesterday noted that Duluth, Minnesota has now had sixty (!) mornings below 0F this winter. This is so surprising as to be record breaking.
The weather across the world has run amok. New Orleans had an ice storm. Brownsville, Texas, on the Mexican border, had a night of freezing rain in late January. Roses are blooming in Germany in February. Parts of Great Britain have been flooding due to persistent rain. Meanwhile, in California, people might literally soon be tempted to start doing rain dances. I looked at an article on Slate and learned some frightening statistics: the entire United States West Coast (yes all the way from San Diego, California to the Canadian border) would need anywhere from eighteen to THIRTY-SIX INCHES of rain to emerge from drought. Thirty-six inches of rain is equivalent to three feet of rain...also known as waist deep for people approximately six feet tall. That is an incredible volume of water.
Alaska has essentially had no winter. This far northern region famed for its bitter winters has been a virtual getaway for warmth according to its own standards. Parts of the state have had 60F weather...in winter! Meanwhile Miami, Florida had at least one morning this winter when the wind chill was near freezing.
This winter has indeed been memorable. When forest fires are scorching California in January you know that something is seriously weird. I shudder to think how much of the state of California's forests may burn to the ground before the next rainy season of 2014-2015. What if there is again no rainy season? The state of California is an economic powerhouse. The diversity of economic sectors, technological innovation and diverse variety of natural landscapes (from the deserts of the Palm Springs area to the mighty redwoods of Humboldt and Del Norte counties) make California an amazing place to visit, work and live. But I'm starting to get the impression that the amount of human development there is soon going to seem a bit excessive. Indeed, if the current drought lasts for another year or more the disruption to the local and global economy could prove quite severe.
And yet despite our notably weird weather (many of the hottest years of the last century have occurred in the last ten years...just google the term "ten hottest years on record") the denial of humanity's contribution to climate change goes on and on. I read that President Obama is apparently going to be going to California and proposing some sort of climate resilience fund. Here's another thought: If we want to have a resilient climate in the long term (ie beyond that of our own lives and children's lives) we would be wise to stop loading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases at a rate that is geologically unprecedented. I think an important part of this phenomenon of climate change and the role we humans are playing in it is the distorted thinking process many people are using when they consider the issue. We are changing the fundamental cycles of the very planet on a time scale not commensurate with the timelines they typically unfold in. In a mere century we have released so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that its release dwarfs the changes that previously would typically unfold over many, many millennia. Read that statement again and try to comprehend what I am saying if you cannot. What we are doing is unprecedented.
So why am I writing about climate change in a blog focused on PTSD? Because our continual journey down this road of overloading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases and thereby changing the planet's atmospheric chemistry in a 'geologic second' could very likely result in such disruption to our global economy and lives that humanity as a whole might experience a collective version of PTSD. Do I sound hyperbolic? Maybe I do. But if you are reading this and skeptical you would be wise to first do some serious reading on the subject.
I don't lie awake at night having horrible nightmares about what the world of 2050 may be like but I do wonder nonetheless enough about it. We as a species need to awaken to the impact we are having on our world at large. I remember reading an article in the Economist a few years ago in which the current time period had been named the Anthropocene. The term is basically a nod to the immense power that the human species now possesses to reshape the very planet itself. Not until the last century did we possess such technological power. Now we do. And I'm not convinced we are very ready for it. Are we drifting towards a preventable self-immolation? I wonder. I wonder often.
None of us will get out of this life alive. So why can't we as a species stop hating and killing one another? We are greater when we love and support one another as compared to destroying and undermining one another. What happens to 'others' effectively impacts us...in ways great and small.
If you are feeling stressed out...or even more stressed out by reading this...consider looking at this resource.
Be well. Live well. Sleep well. Dream well.
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