The end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 brought some extreme weather across the world.
Prior to the Christmas holidays, North America was hit by what meteorologists called a historic extratropical cyclone which created winter storm conditions, including blizzards, high winds, snowfall, or record cold temperatures across the majority of the United States and parts of Canada. Areas which experienced blizzard conditions included parts of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, New York and Ontario, with the Buffalo area of New York and the Fort Erie and Kingston areas of Ontario experiencing almost two full days of blizzard/zero-visibility conditions. The cold wave affected all U.S. states from Colorado to the eastern seaboard and as far south as Miami, Florida. Fifty-five million people were under wind chill alerts the morning of December 25. This also brought many delays with those who were traveling for the holidays, which airports and trains being cancelled due to the weather. Not to mention all the power outages that happened during this time. Many had no power for Christmas. Check out this video taken in Buffalo during the blizzard. It will give you a good idea of the storm ....
Then starting New Year's Eve, temperatures rose quite abnormally in Europe: Poland and Czech Republic went up to 19 C (66F); Italy and Spain, 25 C (77F) to name a few. These are regions that normally at this time of year (December / January) is cold with lots of snow. Many ski resort sites from Austria to Poland had to close down due to a lack of snow. People went to the beach and flocking the patios, instead of staking and skiing. Many who track worldwide weather records described this warm spell as historic and could not believe the scope and magnitude. When the Alps are starting to melt, Houston we have a problem. Check out this report from Global News, in which they speak of this heatwave and the storm that we had right before Christmas. It gives some great insight on the phenomena:
The Reality of Climate Change in 2023
People in general are surprised to see this extreme weather, but it has been happening more frequently in the past 10 years or so. This is definitely newsworthy because it is beyond our normal scope of things. The world is definitely changing. The planet is warming up and has been for some time now. I believe the heating of the planet was accelerated by man, but we are not the only cause. Historically, the Earth has had times that it got extremely cold (the ice age) and extremely hot (during the dinosaur age). That being said, man may have accelerated the process, but the Earth has gone through this type of change in the past
One thing is for certain, these type of extreme and violent weather patterns will only continue to be more frequent as the Earth warms up. The real issue here is what will our Governments do about it. We are now beyond prevention and need to adapt to the weather patterns if civilization as we know if is going to survive. People look at this issue and tell themselves, that is a problem for the next generation. Well the time is now. This might go sideways faster than we think. Not one city in the world that is next to a body of water is ready for rising water levels of the oceans, and that will happen in the very near future. Utilities will need to adapt their way of doing things, like replacing electrical wires for power either underground or closer to the ground so that power will not go out every time there is a storm.
I am not very optimistic about our governments to act. As long as power, money and greed stay as the foundation of our society, well our civilisation risks extinction. Mother Earth will still be standing long after the human being is extinct.
This is what all these World Organizations need to talk about. Meaningless treaties are just that meaningless treaties. There have never been any concrete actions taken after those meetings, and there never will be. it is all show to give the illusion something is being done, but in reality, it is the status quo. One indication this is true is that government, globally, all invest and help out the oil industry instead of slowly replacing them with alternatives. Here in Canada, the federal, provincial and municipal governments make a fortune in tax revenue on gas. They will not give it up. I am not saying to stop cold turkey, but at least demonstrate an effort for an alternative. Everyone is leaning towards electric cars. It is a good first step, but petroleum is used to make many products like in rubber and plastics, There is a beginning of an effort for remove plastics here is Canada, but measures have to be followed globally to have any effect.
All that to say that 2023 will be the year that global climate change will effect are lives more frequently and possible deadlier. We are not prepared for these extreme weather events. Hopefully I am wrong, but if this year continues the way it started, Covid will be a walk in the park compared to this.
If you have any thoughts on this article or the subject matter, you can send me an email at dino.teoli@gmail.com, or contact me on Facebook or Twitter.
Despite a pessimistic editorial, lets keep on smiling and maybe that will help us find a suitable solution for this important and persisting issue.
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