The devastation from this weekend’s tornadoes was a stark reminder of the future that awaits humans on this planet, when weird weather is increasingly unpredictable and severe.
But President Joe Biden — whose climate change initiatives in his social spending package face an uncertain future in the Senate — has more immediate political problems, including that high gas prices and inflation have eaten into his political power.
The existential threat of our lifetime is running, again, into the political realities of our democracy. That the clock is ticking to address climate change has been broadcast on repeat, with increasing intensity. But as those alarm bells ring, so do warnings about continued threats to the republic, nearly a year after rioters stormed the US Capitol, as well as threats to American pocketbooks in the thick of the holiday season, thanks to the ongoing pandemic that continues to disrupt so much of the global system and threaten public health. Every day is a dizzying onslaught of headlines drowning out the perpetual threat of climate change until a severe weather event like this weekend’s resurfaces the discussion.
“This is going to be the new normal,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday, talking about extreme weather in general. “The effects that we’re seeing from climate change are the crisis of our generation.”
To be clear, we don’t know that climate change was responsible for the tornadoes; research on the role that climate change is playing in the formation and intensity of tornadoes is not as robust as for other types of extreme weather like droughts, floods and even hurricanes. But extreme weather is here to stay.
It goes beyond the odd fact of snow in Hawaii this month, but little in Denver. Floods and wildfires are getting worse. The devastation in Kentucky suggests tornadoes could be in the mix….Read More