connecting some dots

The media is filled with horror stories from the states blasted by a record number of huge hyperenergized storms this past week. The statistics are sobering... not just the numbers of tornadoes, but the fact that so many had winds over 200 mph. One story I recommend is 'What the Wind Carried Away' (James Braziel, NYTimes Op-Ed, 4-30). Braziel describes finding papers in his yard carried over 100 miles by a storm that barely missed his suburb of Birmingham, AL.
There's another aspect of the reporting that is being challenged by an increasing number of ethicists: It is immoral and unethical to report these remarkable weather events without mentioning, at the very least, the fact that humans... that's you and me... are without any doubt at least partially to blame for the rapid increase in such events around the globe. In ethical terms, it's called 'connect the dots'. Scientists refer to the physics of the situation: Warm air holds more moisture, enabling the violence that more and more frequently plagues human settlements.
You may have read my several references to Heidi Cullen's latest book on climate change. These storms in our mid-South follow exactly her predictions of increasingly violent and bizarre weather events. The fact that Texas is now on fire is entirely predictable... and the drought in our Southwest is predictable as well. So it is without exaggeration that Dr. Braziel ends his op-ed piece: "And if you were not in Pratt City, if you did not see where all the debris had come from, you would be left with only those tiniest of pieces, wondering what happened and how fast and how far, if next time it would be something of yours".
Connect the dots. Everything is interconnected. Every action affects every other action. It's time for each of us to look at our entitlements a little more closely, keeping in mind the 300+ dead in our South. "If the next time it would be something of yours".

We're going to have dinner with friends this evening. We'll walk.

Namaste.

Corvallisgadfly@gmail.com