Long Hot Summer

The United States seems to be prone to sequential disasters, each devastating, each directly or indirectly caused by human choice. Whether it is a proclivity to fight unwinnable wars is unforgiving lands, a do-nothing, polarized Congress mired in outdated strategies, underdeveloped reasoning, a complete disregard of history and precedents with a complete lack of concern for the toll of economic damage they can and often do inflict on their constituency… to the inaction that has allowed climate change to decimate lands across the nation.

This has been a 12-month period of SuperStorm Sandy, roiling tornados, continued drought in some areas and flood in others, firestorms and intense bursts of nature’s winter fury. Some of these disasters cannot be accurately plotted far in advance of their occurrence. Others loom with diabolical clarity.

The summer of 2013 snarls at our Western states with malicious delight at the disasters likely to define the season. Despite a nasty blizzard or two, the winter snowfall in the mountainous regions out west has been unnaturally light. With water tables already low from years of drought – many lakes and reservoirs half full – the light snow cover augurs badly for the potential available water supplies as the snow only trickles into the parched water supply. The drought seems destined to intensify. Farmers face another round of losses. Fires seem poised to destroy more timberland. And the loss in environment, natural resources, jobs and lifestyle will only complicate and devastate our nation at a time of impaired ability to respond to disasters.

“Reservoir levels have fallen sharply in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. The soil is drier than normal. And while a few recent snowstorms have cheered skiers, the snowpack is so thin in parts of Colorado that the government has declared an ‘extreme drought’ around the ski havens of Vail and Aspen.

“‘We’re worse off than we were a year ago,’ said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center… Ranchers are straining to find hay — it is scarce and expensive — to feed cattle. And farmers are fretting about whether they will have enough water to irrigate their fields.

“‘It’s approaching a critical situation,’ said Mike Hungenberg, who grows carrots and cabbage on a 3,000-acre farm in Northern Colorado. There is so little water available this year, he said, that he may scale back his planting by a third, and sow less thirsty crops, like beans.” New York Times, February 22^nd.

So what are our nation’s stated priorities? To accelerate the use of our vast coal and natural gas resources and explore and develop additional petroleum reserves. More greenhouse gasses are the inevitable result. Our “austerity first” Congress also seems to be dedicated to leaving the decaying infrastructure in sorry disrepair and avoid building the next generation of efficiency-directed projects that would both makes us more competitive and deal more effectively with impending natural disasters.

As nature acts, we have become a reactive society. We deal with problems after they occur and swell to much larger proportions than would have occurred with good planning. But we need those military expenditures – 41% of the global military budget – to be able to continue to fight unwinnable wars, well beyond any semblance of a strong national defense requirement. We’ve talked ourselves into believing into the necessity of this excess. We just haven’t talked ourselves in deal with the real killers attacking our country (and the world)… nature’s soldiers with orders to kill and take no prisoners.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I wonder how most Americans feel about the planet and the future they are handing to their children.