Superstorm Sandy: A Sign of Things to Come

Hurricane Sandy is remarkable in several respects. It is the most powerful storm ever to hit the NE States. It had the largest size prior to hitting landfall of any storm at one thousand miles in diameter. It also had the lowest barometric pressure when it hit landfall in New Jersey. It is also the first time that a tropical storm merged with an artic low pressure system. Thus, the storm is affecting weather all the way from South Carolina to Canada. This storm will remain in place for days due to an extremely large high pressure system to the east

Hurricane Sandy by National Weather Service

 

This strange merger of low pressure systems has completely disrupted the Jet Stream in the Northern Hemisphere. Because this kind of merger has never happened before, there is no way of telling what will happen next. But it this disruption of the Jet Stream is almost certain to create unusual weather patterns for the rest of the winter all over the Northern Hemisphere.

 

The Jet Stream is too far north in the western US and too far south in the eastern US

 

Jet Stream by National Weather Service

 

This record storm follows on the heels of a record drought this past summer. But the most remarkable aspect of this storm is the lack of acknowledgement by the talking heads of the corporate media that this record storm and the record drought this past summer are both related to global warming.

 

According to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, Hurricane Sandy was mentioned in 94 stories on major networks in the past 2 days. Not one mentioned global warming or climate change. A study by mediamatters.org concluded that coverage of climate change by the major networks fell 90% between 2009 and 2011 — despite many record weather events during that time.

 

Corporate Media by David Spring

 

Many computer models have predicted for more than 20 years that as we heat up the planet, we will see more extreme weather, including record storms and record droughts. It is similar to heating up a pot of water and watching the bubbles rise faster. With skyrocketing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide being increasingly emitted into the atmosphere, this extreme weather is certain to get much worse and much more common in coming years. We have only seen a two degree rise in temperature. Computer models predict a 7 to 10 degree temperature rise in coming years. Thus future storms will likely be several times worse than Hurricane Sandy — and several times worse than Hurricane Katrina.

 

CO2 concentration is currently approaching 400 ppm

Carbon Dioxide Concentration by Oak Ridge National Laboratory

 

Record hurricanes and record droughts have already caused tens of billions of dollars in damage. Yet, neither of the two Presidential candidates – and in fact neither of the two major political parties – have made reversing global warming an important issue of their campaigns. This is because both parties rely on oil companies and other multinational corporations for their campaign funding. It has therefore been left to the Green Party Presidential candidate, Jill Stein, to raise the issue of global warming and the role that solar power could play in reducing extreme weather in the future. Jill Stein has shown tremendous courage in this campaign and is to be commended for bringing truth to the American people about the danger of unchecked global warming.

 

Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein

Jill Stien Green Party Presidential candidate by Green Party website

 

Voices daring to break the corporate silence on climate change:

 

There has been a pervading climate silence. If there was ever a wakeup call, this is it.

Either the fossil fuel industry keeps pouring carbon into the atmosphere and we keep seeing this kind of event, or we take some action.     Bill McKibben 350.org

 

I think this storm should serve as a huge wakeup call for the people of America”. The crazy weather of the past few years is related to climate change. People are going to wise up at some point. Jeff Masters, meteorologist. Weather underground.   Democracy Now

 

“The fingerprints of climate change are all over this storm” As the Atlantic Ocean gets warmer further and further north, we are going to see more of these extremely damaging storms more frequently.” Mike Tidwell, Director Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Global warming heated the water of the Gulf and Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in greatly increased energy and water vapor in the air above the water.  When that happens, extremely energetic and wet storms occur more frequently and ferociously. These systemic effects of global warming came together to produce the ferocity and magnitude of Hurricane Sandy.  George Lakoff for Buzzflash at truthout.com.

 

Denail Cartoon by unknown

“The main climate change denier is inside of all of us.” Hans Erbar, Researcher University of Utah

Denial is not just a river in Egypt. Hurricane Sandy is not just a wakeup call. It is just a sign of far worse storms to come. If you are concerned about the future of our children and the kind of world we are leaving for them, then it is time to become more aware of the problems created by global warming and the solutions to this problem. It is time to break through the wall of silence of the corporate media by seeking out alternative media sources which are available through websites such as opednews.com and alternative news sources such as Link TV and Democracy Now dot org on Free Speech TV and also on You Tube.

Originally published at OpEdNews