Searing heat should remind us the only issue is climate change
It’s the end of an era for Glens Falls newspaper
By Ken Tingley
When people find out I’m retired, they are often curious if I plan on moving to Florida or somewhere south.
The answer is no.
One of the reasons is climate change.
This past week the world experienced its four hottest days ever recorded and confirmed that I will not be moving south anytime soon.
Looking around the country, the Northeast is one of the few places that has not suffered significantly because of climate whether it is through extreme temperatures or a growing ferocity of storms.
But the wildfires in Canada show it is on the horizon for us, too.
Fifteen years ago, my wife talked me into putting in a swimming pool, despite my arguments that the summer swimming season was too short to justify the cost. I was finally sold when I discovered I could put solar panels on my roof to heat the pool. We regularly keep the pool open into September and open before Memorial Day. Since opening the pool in late May this year, I have not needed to heat the pool at all.
My colleague Will Doolittle mentioned he has taken to warming up his car this week so the air conditioning is available on short trips.
We’ve experienced the extreme heat over the past couple of years while visiting our son. He live in San Antonio while working for National Park Service. That meant he had to work outdoors in 115-degree summer heat.
My son moved on to New Orleans to work in the World War II museum there. We moved him in last year in the month of August.
He has suffered the heat dome first hand these past couple weeks. He lives just a few blocks from work, but admitted it was so hot, he sometimes drives so he doesn’t have to change clothes when he gets to work.
Saturday night, he texted his air conditioning unit may have died during the recent triple-digit heat in New Orleans.
This weekend, we couldn’t help but notice some roofers working in Queensbury. It seemed unimaginable.
Give me three feet of snow any day of the week over triple-digit temperatures.
There was a story a couple weeks ago that the state of Texas has become the leading producer of green energy. In fact it produces more wind and solar power than the next three states - California, Iowa and Oklahoma - combined. It’s kind of ironic since it is known for its oil and gas extraction.
Texas consumers, by one estimate, had saved about $423 each on their electrical bills because of green energy production. More than 2,800 jobs have been created while oil and gas jobs have been reduced.
Goodall knows what he is talking about since he lives in Texas. He writes in his essay that while Texas consumers reap the benefits of green energy, the state leads the country in workers dying from heat.
Gov. Greg Abbott recently approved a law that eliminates local ordinances requiring water breaks for construction workers. On the day that Abbott approved the measure, Goodall acknowledged he chose not to go out to go outside to get his mail until after the sun set.
Think about that for a second.
Goodall has been seeing lots of disturbing signs from the excessive heat like hikers dying of heatstroke and fish washing up on Gulf Coast beaches.
Goodall also wrote this especially disturbing passage: “The red-faced desperation on the faces of homeless people living beneath an overpass near me was spookily evocative of the red-faced desperation I’d seen on the faces of people in India and Pakistan.”
Goodall lives in Austin, Texas.
For some time, we have all universally tried to be “cool.” Its seems ironic that may eventually become a life and death proposition. I leave you with these words from the end of Goodall’s essay. Honestly, I’m not sure if I want to read the book to find out what comes next.
“But living under the Texas heat dome has reinforced my view that we have to be clear-eyed about the scope and scale of what we are facing. The extreme heat that is cooking many parts of the world this summer is not a freakish event — it is another step into our burning future. The wildfires in Canada, the orange Blade Runner skies on the East Coast, the hot ocean, the rapidly melting glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica and the Himalayas, the high price of food, the spread of vector-borne diseases in unexpected places — it is all connected, and it is all driven by rising heat.
“We need to start seeing hot days as more than an invitation to go to the beach or hang out at the lake. Extreme heat is the engine of planetary chaos. We ignore it at our peril. Because if there is one thing we should understand about the risks of extreme heat, it is this: All living things, from humans to hummingbirds, share one simple fate. If the temperature they’re used to — what scientists sometimes call their Goldilocks Zone — rises too far, too fast, they die.”
If you local politician is not talking about this issue, they do not have your best interests at heart.
It is the only issue that matters.
CFPB at work
If you read Will Doolittle’s column on “The Front Page,” you learned he was not alone in his complaint against Citizens Bank.
Will mentioned how the bank had recently been fined $9 million - a pittance for a bank - by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB was formed in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown to monitor banks and Wall Street.
The Trump administration did its best to declaw the agency by appointing the president’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to slow enforcement actions. Rep. Stefanik has also been opposed to the agency.
Judging by Will Doolittle’s experience, we need it more than ever.
Last trip to mailbox
Sophie and I made our last trip to the mailbox Sunday to get our morning newspaper. Beginning this week, The Post-Star will be printed just three times a week -Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday - and delivered by the Post Office.
Since my mail is delivered around noon-time, there will be no morning trips to the mailbox, but Sophie may insist on some sort of walk.
The Schenectady Gazette also announced this week it was shutting down its printing press. It will continue to print daily, but at the newspaper in Springfield, Mass.
The Post-Star had previously been published at the Gazette. It will now be published at the Times Union.
Can you imagine eliminating and ordinance that requires water breaks for construction workers? How do these people sleep at night? Then again, Abbott has so much he should be loosing sleep over....
We're our own Worst Enemy