Rain, rain, won’t go away….

Posted on July 28, 2009
Filed Under Uncategorized |

200236712-001 I have a convertible. An old one that doesn’t run particularly well, purchased on a whim somewhere around the time I turned 40 (I swear, just a coincidence.) It’s fun in the summer but the problem is, this year we haven’t had much summer to enjoy it. The other day when I opened the door to get something out of it, I was a little surprised to notice a bright green shoot of some sort of plant coming out from behind a floor mat. We have had so much rain, that the warm, humid, damp atmosphere inside this car has given rise to plant life.

Scientist are quick to point out the difference between “weather” and “climate.” The day to day changes and even season-long patterns are weather, while the decade and century-long patterns are what define climate. And it’s the climate that is changing.

The weather we’ve been experiencing in the northeast can fit into long term climate change models. But whether or not the rainy summer is a sign of global warming, it provides a grim example of how serious the effects of climate change can be. Here’s a sampling of headlines from local papers over the last few days:

‘Lost Season’: With Maine’s corn and hay crops in jeopardy, livestock farmers look for ways to work through crisis

Clam flats close again after rain follows red tide: The combination makes this the worst in a string of very bad years for the industry, clam diggers say

Maine’s wild blueberry crop imperiled by leaf spot fungus

Those headline represent millions of dollars in lost revenue and lost jobs. And probably just a small sampling of what the effects of full-blown climate change would bring.

Scientists in California say global warming could bring a flood of “Noah’s Ark Proportions,” similar to a cataclysmic flood that struck California in the mid 19th century.

That flood, occurring during 45 days of rain, turned California into an inland sea. It also forced Gov. Leland Stanford to take a rowboat to his inauguration, wiped out a third of taxable land and virtually bankrupted the state.Despite more than a century of flood channels, debris dams and levees built since, such a flood could wreak $25 billion in damage to the state capital alone, according to the Geological Survey.

And because of global warming, scientists forecast such a colossal gully-washer born by the “pineapple express” jet stream to happen sooner rather than later.

Just a little more evidence that any cost associated with making the change to clean energy is a bargain compared to the cost of doing nothing.

As for whatever is growing in my convertible, I’m leaving it alone for awhile to see what it turns into. I’m hoping arugala.

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