Hurricane Sandy: Climate Change Rearing Its Ugly Head?

Many critics (including us) questioned why climate change wasn’t mentioned during the Presidential Debates. Mitt Romney even used climate change as a punchline. But could we be seeing Climate Change forced in front of our eyes right before a monumental election?

Hurricane Sandy isn’t just half as big as Texas – She’s set to be an unprecedented storm of our lifetime. Scientists predicted that global warming would intensify North Atlantic hurricanes, but Frankenstorm is truly an understatement what’s sneaking up on us. Rising ocean temperatures lead to more evaporation, and therefore leads to more frequent (or stronger) storms.

As Bill McKibben of 350.org explains:

“It’s really important that everybody, even those who aren’t in the kind of path of this storm, reflect about what it means that in the warmest year in U.S. history … in a year when we saw, essentially, summer sea ice in the Arctic just vanish before our eyes, what it means that we’re now seeing storms of this unprecedented magnitude,” McKibben says. “If there was ever a wake-up call, this is it.

Hurricane Sandy by itself isn’t a defining ‘signal’ of climate change – but is it coincidental that 2012 has been the hottest year on record? How about the arctic sea ice melting at record levels, also this year? Rising acid levels in the ocean? All of these things by themselves are an odd factor, but when you start compiling them on top of each other, something seems quite fishy… Especially since they’re all happening in 2012.

Whether you believe climate change or not (and choose to ignore science), crazy shit is happening with our environment. Hurricane Sandy isn’t the only factor. Regardless, we should be making more sustainable decisions – they make everything we’re eating, drinking, wearing and living in healthier and better. After all, we’re not trying to save the “earth” from disaster… we’re saving ourselves.

Stay safe and dry, Philadelphia and East Coast! And if you’re like me and forgot to stock up on flashlights, do yourself a favor and buy one now for the next time you need it. I do wonder if we’ll find some plastic washed up from the storm, especially after the 5 Gyres told us the 411 about plastic literally everywhere in the ocean…

Photo: IB Times

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