Joe Ronn – Our New Green Culture

Washington (GGM) Analysis
by Noreen Wise

The new normal of weekly rain deluges is directly correlated to the melting polar ice sheets. The fact that these rain and snow torrents are now so consistent and prevalent, serve as a steady reminder of how urgent the climate crisis is, and how essential climate action must become in our daily choices and habits.

The increased moisture in the air, which has resulted in terrifying “weather bombs,” arises from the warming oceans that melt the polar ice sheets.

Dark blue ocean waters store heat from the sun, causing ocean temperatures to rise, triggering the increased atmospheric moisture and the damaging weather bombs. Whereas massive white polar ice sheets deflect the sun’s heat… so as these polar sheets melt, the balance between the amount of dark blue heat-absorbing water to white sun-reflecting sheets shifts, and moisture in the air increases, triggering an influx of deluges.

Understanding the science behind this life-threatening phenomenon, is very effective motivation in accelerating our personal shift to non fossil fuel sustainable energy.

Over the July 4th holiday, driving through the mountains, the skies opened and dumped a blinding amount of rain on the packed lanes of traffic. It was maddening that at that precise moment, I just happened to be next to an “Extra Wide Load” (truck carrying a mobile home) on a curve along a pothole strewn interstate highway high atop a mountain. Crazy. No place to take cover. Windshield wipers that couldn’t keep up. A flash of awareness overcame me, and I could see so clearly that something significant has changed and driving in these conditions was exceedingly dangerous.

Further down the highway, there had been a massive accident that shut down all three lanes. We had to stay parked for two hours while they cleared the wreck. The two events seem connected, but may not have been.

Individual #ClimateAction is both a moral imperative as well as a personal daily checklist. Everyone of us on earth, needs to aim for a personal carbon footprint of only 3 metric tons annually. Currently, most Americans hover around 15.5 metric tons, while there are many that cruise along at 23 metric tons.

Climate Change Expert Dr. Joseph Romm, an MIT alumni, has organized Climate Action choices into four categories:

Transportation: make the switch to Hybrid or EV autos; public transportation, walk, scooter, ride bikes
Home: go solar, LED lightbulbs, turn out lights when leaving a room
Diet: change our eating habits, red meat & dairy increase our carbon footprint
Stuff: buying, storing and carting around “stuff”

The #ClimateCrisis warnings are everywhere. Deluges are universal, striking every town, state and country. The ONLY way to alter the current climate change trajectory is to tackle all four of these climate action categories as quickly as possible. Good luck, we can do this!