EDITORIAL: Tough questions, no answers as heat wave spreads across the globe
Jul. 21—Hot enough for you? It ain't the heat, it's the humidity. Yeah, but it's a dry heat.
All cliches aside, it's hotter than Hades this week. We are smack dab in the middle of a good, old-fashioned heat wave. Or are we? Every summer, it seems, New England goes through a hot spell, where the thermometer ticks up near 100 degrees, with sweltering humidity making it even hotter.
But this one feels different. It's not just New England, it's old England, too, where the temperature topped 104 degrees on Tuesday for the first time in recorded history. According to The New York Times, many areas of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Britain were 20 degrees hotter on Tuesday than historical averages — in some places reaching 110 degrees.
Meanwhile, the southern United States is suffering its own debilitating heat wave, with temperatures in the danger zone of 103 to 124 degrees. About half of continental Africa is in a heat wave. A huge chunk of China is also suffering from high temperatures. Even central South America — which is in the southern hemisphere where it's winter — is in the midst of a heat wave.
Wildfires are burning out of control in many states across the United States and in many countries of Europe.
Global warming, it seems, is making itself known southern hemisphere — not just here, but everywhere.
The phrase "Nero fiddled while Rome burned" comes to mind when thinking about how leaders across the world are not doing enough to combat global warming. The United States is a perfect example of that. While the last president spent his time playing golf and denying the science behind global warming, the current president travels to Saudi Arabia in an effort to get the leaders there to put more oil into the global marketplace, which would reduce the cost of gasoline and improve Democrats' chances at the ballot box in the midterm elections this fall. So much for Biden's pledge to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
Short-term interests and self-interest aside, further hampering Biden's environmental agenda is that his climate bill is being held up by someone in his own party. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has refused to support Biden's climate initiatives, claiming he doesn't want to use federal funding for clean energy. Why would anyone from West Virginia, where coal is still king, support clean or renewable energy when there is still money to be made by strip mining mountains and valleys or boring wells under farms in search of natural gas?
Manchin can certainly be cast as the demon in this situation. But he's not alone. We are all to blame for this runaway train ride into global warming oblivion. It's easy to say, "Our leaders must act now, or we will be in dire straits in the future."
A famous NFL coach, George Allen, famously said, "The future is now," when referring to creating winning teams now rather than waiting five years for the perfect alignment of personnel.
The same could be said for the planet: The future is now. We are in it. We are living it. And it's only getting worse.
As the former president told his right-wing militia followers from the podium at the last presidential debate: "Stand back and stand by."
Everyone knows what happened then: The Proud Boys and hundreds of their skinhead buddies stormed the capitol and nearly overthrew the government.
We can't afford the luxury of hindsight. What will the residents of this planet be saying in 50 or 100 years — when Miami, Boston and New York City are under water? It will be easy to say: "Coulda, shoulda, woulda." But now is the time to act. We can't afford to wait any longer. Our lives — and the survival of future generations of life on this planet — depend on it.
