Ignoring signposts of climate change guarantees misery

May 24—At some point as we travel this global warming road in denial, we will collectively run into an impenetrable stone wall, a nonnegotiable end to our aimless wandering. There will be no detour, no climb, no tunnel, no run-around, no quick fix — as if boxed into a canyon. And then it will begin to rain.

Having ignored all the sign posts and scientific research, now, finally, a great majority of voices will agree that we need to do something, immediately, right now. Yes, even here in coal country, we all will have our stories of how climate change is imposing itself upon standards of living in what is already one of the poorest, most disadvantaged states in the country.

And, of course, then it will be too late — if that time has not already passed. The coming misery — and make no mistake, it already has manifested itself with increasing regularity — will be piled atop all the rest.

The trick now, perhaps mankind's only defense, is to mitigate the worst of what is baked into the climate cake. But first, we must all recognize the truth, the reality of the coming storm.

Consider this: On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ran up its warning flags, predicting that the United States could face one of its worst hurricane seasons in two decades.

Associated Press reporting said meteorologists were predicting 17 to 25 tropical storms this season with eight to 13 of them likely to become hurricanes. Four to seven have been graded "major."

Yet, it could be worse. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania see a record 33 named storms on the horizon.

This eyebrow-raising forecast emphasizes how record-hot ocean temperatures have increased the risk of calamitous weather. Climate scientists say this season would eclipse the records and ruins of 2005 when warm waters across the tropical Atlantic Ocean fed climate conditions to produce a record-breaking 28 storms, including Hurricane Katrina.

Now, those waters, because of human behavior that has not substantially changed in the interim, are dramatically hotter than they were 19 years ago — as warm as they would be in a typical August, NOAA's lead hurricane season forecaster Matthew Rosencrans said.

This is largely the consequence of a witches' brew of human-emitted greenhouse gases — primarily, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases — shoveled into the fire pit beneath the caldron of global warming.

Carbon dioxide — produced by the extraction and burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas — is largely regarded as the key anthropogenic greenhouse gas because it accounts for the greatest portion of the warming associated with human activities.

We know this.

If those hurricanes seem out of sight and out of mind, off a distant shore from the reality of life here in West Virginia, consider the consequences of heavy rainfall that the state would get from a close encounter with any one of those Atlantic storms, where the rainfall from a downpour has but one place to go — down the mountain to where the rivers and roads run in and out of small communities where people find shelter and conduct business, go to church and attend classes.

We have seen this movie before. We know the devastating and deadly effects of flooding, and we know the cost to rebuild never covers all that was lost.

And we know that there won't be as much government money to reengineer the highways and bridges, the sewers and water systems, the infrastructure that grids and connects our society, to hand to the small business owner — because states and communities all across the country will be asking for their fair share to rebuild from their own storms, from their own weather-related catastrophes. Demand for relief will humble available resources.

We know it will be expensive. Take, for instance, a simple thing, like the cost of refitting schools with air-conditioning, as the Washington Post did in a recent story. The number of school days above 80 degrees is increasing across the entire country including here in West Virginia. How much will it all cost to keep classroom temps comfortable for students and teachers alike? According to The Post's reporting, $40 billion — just for the air conditioning.

How will that play out in a state like West Virginia where education and schools are already grossly underfunded?

Well, we should also know that strategies exist to decrease our reliance on carbon — or to ameliorate its poisons.

A carbon absorbing plant opened in Hellisheidi, Iceland, this month. The plant is designed to remove 36,000 metric tons of carbon each year — the equivalent of taking 8,600 cars off the road.

It's a start.

Cellular agriculture — animal products including red meat grown from cells in labs — is making headway and will, eventually, become widely available.

And, yes, electric cars are as real as are the increasing number of recharging stations across the country.

But lest we forget, the cost of Katrina was 1,833 lives lost and $120 billion in federal funds, including $75 billion in emergency relief, spent on the recovery effort.

And that was nearly 20 years ago.

Just one storm.

Now, imagine four or seven. Or 33.