Hurricane Ian’s catastrophic storm surge was so powerful that it piled up boats on land in downtown Ft. Myers, Florida marina. (Dylan Federico)
Dr. Alan Betts
Extraordinary climate extremes around the globe that appear to reflect the Earth’s perspective on climate have continued since my last update in August. After talking to people here in Vermont, I am now using “Mother Nature’s perspective” on climate, as most grasp its meaning at once. It has also two profound benefits: the first is the shift to the indigenous world view. The second is it quietly removes the male chauvinist bias that has dominated western thought and politics for almost two thousand years. This bias was created within Christianity at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., when the Emperor Constantine destroyed the indigenous Aramaic teachings of Yeshua (to us Jesus) which were based on the living Creation, in order to create a Roman Catholic Church that met his needs for male human power and authority.
In the climate world, post-tropical storm Fiona with wind gusts still up to 100 mph struck Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island on September 24, 2022, leaving them without power. It was the most extreme storm ever to hit eastern Canada with expected damages that may approach a billion dollars. You may recall that back in late-June and early July last year an extreme heat wave set massive fires in British Columbia (BC) when temperatures in the forest town of Lytton BC reached a record 121oF. Then in mid-November 2021, an atmospheric river brought extreme flooding to BC that caused massive mud and debris slides that closed the Trans-Canada Highway and national railway line. This shut off exports of liquid natural gas from the BC mines and exports from the Alberta tar sands. Canada has no intention of closing these profitable industries, but from Mother Nature’s perspective these fossil fuel industries and exports are contributing to the destruction of life on Earth, so storms targeting Canada will continue.
On September 28, 2022 Hurricane Ian after damaging Cuba, maneuvered to target Florida. It slowed down and amplified to nearly a category 5 storm. It struck the west coast near Fort Myers after passing over Sanibel Island, causing catastrophic damage from winds, storm surge and flooding, and substantial loss of life. Torrential rain led to still more flooding, which is likely to continue on the slow-moving St. John’s River into November. Hurricane Ian then crossed Florida, redeveloped over the Gulf, and moved north to hit South Carolina. Florida governor DeSantis could be one of the Earth’s targets as he is a ‘climate change denier’ who doesn’t support renewable power and has a largely neo-fascist political agenda that has no respect for life on Earth. Unfortunately for politicians and other important people, Mother Nature can read all our minds.
On the other side of the world the flooding of the coal mines in eastern Australian continues. Back in the first week of July 2022, Sydney had a catastrophic flood when a huge storm cell brought a year’s worth of rain (about 4feet) in three days to some areas. Recently from October 13 through 23, 2022 there were more huge floods across Victoria, New South Wales and up into Queensland. Some areas received four times the mean October rainfall in 24 hours. These flooding extremes are making parts of eastern Australia unlivable, but the political system refuses to discuss how their coal mines are destroying life on Earth. Australia is the second largest exporter of coal globally. Companies which are mining more than ten billion tons of coal per year are enjoying cash profit margins of about 45%. Rather than discuss the link between climate change and coal mining, the extraordinary claim has been made that Australia is not responsible for the climate consequences, since their coal is burnt elsewhere! Mother Nature disagrees. An exceptionally long La Nina in the Pacific which contributes to these floods is continuing.
Exxon-Mobil’s chief scientist told management in 1978 they had to act swiftly to save the Earth’s climate and he was told to keep quiet. After waiting forty-plus years for humanity to act, Mother Nature is taking over the climate system to protect life on Earth. This is incomprehensible to our political and financial leaders as it is a threat to capitalism, whose purpose is to make money exploiting people and life on Earth. The ongoing takeover by Mother Nature is incompatible with the unspoken concept of capitalism that “Humanity is in charge, because we are the only intelligent species on Earth.” The Fossil Empire will have to spread more webs of lies and bribe more politicians to try to avoid facing change. When you are making trillions destroying Mother Nature and the lives of our children, these are trivial costs, but they will be a total failure as the destruction of the Fossil Empire is now inevitable.
The takeover by Mother Nature seems fearful to some at first, and it is if you live on the coast as sea-level rises and storms increase. However, when you realize that your actions on her behalf are transparent to Mother Nature since she can read your mind and support you, your perspective changes to one of gratitude as new worlds of possibilities open to you and your colleagues.
Dr. Alan Betts of Atmospheric Research in Pittsford, VT is a climate scientist. See alanbetts.com.
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