I live on the outer perimeter of the Washington DC metropolitan area. This winter I was buried in snow up to my armpits. Now I am sweltering in 106 degree heat. Both are utterly unprecedented in the 30 years I have lived here.
This is exactly the kind of weather one would expect in a warming climate where atmospheric levels of moisture provide additional energy to weather systems. Global warming leads to climate change and climate change can be anything. In my case it has been a brutal winter and a withering summer.
So is this the life that I and my children and grandchildren will face? If so, what should I do? This winter was somewhat traumatizing in that I found it very difficult to get around for weeks on end. My old car simply couldn't handle the bad roads.
I solved that by getting a new vehicle with all wheel drive. Yes, it is a dreaded SUV. I know it is a bad thing, but I can't be stranded like I was last winter. The only mitigating factor is that I don't put many miles on my car. Cold comfort you might say.
Now that summer is here I am faced with the annual choice of maintaining my aging heat pump or spending the thousands of dollars it would take to replace it with a more efficient and environmentally friendly unit. That's assuming it survives the added strain.
Life on the cusp of extreme weather is unpleasant and uncertain. Buying the SUV was a direct result of the harsh winter. Extreme heat brings its own worries, not the least of which is deaths from heat exhaustion. In Maryland, the number of heat deaths this year has already equaled the total for 2009.
You begin to get a sense of the looming social costs that await if these trends in extreme weather persist. Extreme cold and extreme heat test the ability of our infrastructure to deliver basic survival needs: electricity, water, food, transportation. For state and local budgets already stretched thin, this is unwelcome news in the extreme.
| Comments |
|
