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Last week, Jamaica was slammed by what may have been one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in history, with winds of up to 185 mph at ground level and 215 mph at higher elevations. The combination of a storm surge and heavy rain caused catastrophic flooding in the western part of the island, with some communities all but wiped off the map. Casualties and physical damage reports are just now beginning to trickle in, but it’s already clear Hurricane Melissa left a trail of death and destruction in its wake.
The *[Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-melissa-jamaica-landfall…
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Last week, Jamaica was slammed by what may have been one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in history, with winds of up to 185 mph at ground level and 215 mph at higher elevations. The combination of a storm surge and heavy rain caused catastrophic flooding in the western part of the island, with some communities all but wiped off the map. Casualties and physical damage reports are just now beginning to trickle in, but it’s already clear Hurricane Melissa left a trail of death and destruction in its wake.
The Associated Press reported that the wind speed of 185 mph and the barometric pressure of 892 millibars both tied records for the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded at landfall. The pressure, which is the key measurement meteorologists use, tied the 1935 Labor Day hurricane in Florida. The wind speed tied that hurricane and 2019’s Hurricane Dorian, said hurricane scientists Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University and Brian McNoldy of the University of Miami. “It’s been remarkable, just a beast of a storm,” Klotzbach said.
The storm surge was reported to be 13 feet high. Just imagine a wall of ocean water as high as the roof of a house bearing down on you faster than you can run. Many of Jamaica’s municipal buildings and hospitals are located near the coastline and were in the direct path of the storm.
Alan Gerard, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for 35 years, wrote in the New York Times, “For Hurricane Melissa, the moment of disbelief came in stages. The first was the satellite images of the storm’s incredibly clear and warm eye in the center of a swirling mass of intense thunderstorms. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s automated satellite algorithm that estimates the intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes had essentially maxed out, reaching values seen on rare occasions in the Pacific Ocean, but never in the Atlantic.”
Gerard explains some of the climate factors that influenced the development and growth of Melissa into a mega-storm. He explained that hurricanes need very warm ocean water for fuel, but also tend to churn up colder ocean water from below — a process known as upwelling.
“Typically, very slow moving, powerful hurricanes like Melissa will upwell so much chilly water that there won’t be enough warm water to maintain intensity. In this case, though, the water south of Jamaica was not only unusually warm — about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above normal — it was also abnormally warm to a great depth, which meant Melissa continued to intensify as it reached land, despite moving slowly.”
Put another way, this storm was an outlier no matter how you examine it. “It is not hyperbole to say that western Jamaica experienced something near to the worst tropical cyclone impacts our planet can produce,” Gerard wrote.
“Time and research will determine if climate change will significantly increase the frequency and intensity of hurricanes such as Melissa. But the connection between global warming and increased sea surface temperatures is already well established. We also know that more frequent and impactful weather-related disasters are occurring because more human beings are in harm’s way.”
Humans Have A Perception Problem
Humans are a curious species. We tend to minimize harm that does not effect us directly. We hear of wildfires in Canada or California and feel a sense of relief that we do not live there. We hear of a hurricane forming in the Atlantic and pray — if you live on the east coast of Florida — that it goes into the Gulf or north toward Greenland.
I would suggest that Jamaica is an allegory for humanity. All of us live on islands surrounded by water. Some (North America) are larger than others (Jamaica), but we are all in the same boat and right now that boat is headed toward certain disaster. The oceans cover ⅔ of the surface of the Earth. For the past nearly 200 years, they have been absorbing much of the heat created by emissions created by humans, but we humans — in our uniquely shortsighted way — are able to ignore what we cannot see.
Many of us who grew up in New England know the water at our favorite ocean beach is warmer today than it was when we were young. The oceans are like the cooling system for the Earth, and, just like the radiator in our car, if things get too hot, serious consequences will follow.
Willful Ignorance
Today, the US has a government that is bound and determined to hump the leg of the fossil fuel industry, which in turn funnels cash to these people to help them get reelected — how is that not a crime? — so that they can continue passing laws that benefit the industry. No one, it seems, is able to look down the road and see the freight train speeding toward them, because their vision is obscured by greed.
A few days ago, a CleanTechnica reader who follows me on Substack posted a comment that was so logical, I just had to share it. He said to imagine the world is a swimming pool — in this case a rather large swimming pool, since about 8 billion people are in it. Now imagine that all those people keep peeing in the pool for years and years. Eventually, the pool will become so polluted it will no longer be safe to swim in.
The same analogy works for global heating. Our oceans are the pool and we are dumping our waste products into it and the air above it all day every day. Those oceans are also absorbing most of the heat greenhouse gases are trapping. One day, perhaps very soon, the oceans will no longer be able to regulate the temperature of the Earth as they have done for millennia. When that happens, the carefully calibrated system put in place by The Creator stops working.
Since many of the advocates for fossil fuels are beating their breasts daily to express their religious fervor, you might think they would want to honor the astonishing gift they have been given. That they do not, and in fact continue to berate those who propose preserving the Earth as a place where humans can thrive, calls into question whether they have any concept of what religion is all about. If people who call themselves Christians think the Savior came to Earth to benefit them personally, it is arguable they missed the entire point of His appearance two thousand years ago.
McKibben & Gates
Many of the loudest voices in the anti-climate ranks are people of such stupendous wealth that they could not spend all their money in a thousand lifetimes. This week, Bill Gates — obviously bowing to pressure from the forces unleashed by the pudgy potentate on the Potomac — altered his stance on climate change significantly. In a blog post, he wrote:
“There’s a doomsday view of climate change that goes like this — In a few decades, cataclysmic climate change will decimate civilization. The evidence is all around us — just look at all the heat waves and storms caused by rising global temperatures. Nothing matters more than limiting the rise in temperature.
“Fortunately for all of us, this view is wrong,” Gates wrote. “Although climate change will have serious consequences — particularly for people in the poorest countries — it will not lead to humanity’s demise. People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future. Emissions projections have gone down, and with the right policies and investments, innovation will allow us to drive emissions down much further.” [We call bullshit on that last sentence.]
Bill McKibben took pen in hand to write a response to Gates that begins with this thought: “I feel quite strongly that we should pay less attention to billionaires.” He noted how inappropriate Gates’ timing was, since his remarks were published at the same time as Melissa was slamming into Jamaica. McKibben cites Jeff Masters, who wrote this week:
“Human-caused climate change increased Hurricane Melissa’s wind speeds by 7% (11 mph, or 18 km/h), leading to a 12% increase in its damages, found researchers at the Imperial College of London in a rapid attribution study just released. A separate study by scientists at Climate Central found that climate change increased Melissa’s winds by 10%, and the near-record-warm ocean waters that Melissa traversed — 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.1°F) warmer than average — were up to 900 times more likely to be that warm because of human-caused climate change.”
Gates’ words were greeted with glee by the MAGAsphere. The Washington Times wrote, “I (WE!) just won the War on the Climate Change Hoax,” said Mr. Trump in a Wednesday post on Truth Social. “Bill Gates has finally admitted that he was completely WRONG on the issue. It took courage to do so, and for that we are all grateful. MAGA!!!”
To which, McKibben responded: “The fact that Gates framed all this in a way designed to appeal to the president is so obvious that it hardly bears mentioning (the richest men in the world have all been sucking up to him, so no extra shame here). Let’s instead just go to the heart of his argument, which is weak in the extreme.
“Take the case of Jamaica. The warming-fueled hurricane that smashed into the island on Tuesday did a lot of damage. How much? The first estimates from the insurance industry say between 30 and 250 percent of the country’s annual GDP. The wide range is because we don’t yet have pictures from much of the country, so let’s go with the very low end of the range. Thirty percent of a country’s GDP is … a lot of money. It’s as if Hurricane Katrina had cost America $8 trillion. [emphasis original]. If America suddenly had an $8 trillion hole, what do you think that would do to its ability to pay for education and health care and the like?… Jamaica is in a hole it will spend forever getting out of.
“According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, every one degree climb in temperature knocks 12 percent off GDP,” McKibben pointed out. “The paper concluded that ‘by the end of the century people may well be 50% poorer than they would’ve been if it wasn’t for climate change.’ And who gets hurt the most? That would be the developing countries that Gates in theory worries about. Here’s a Stanford study showing that ‘The gap between the economic output of the world’s richest and poorest countries is 25 percent larger today than it would have been without global warming.’”
Three Cheers For McKibben
We’re with Bill McKibben. Let’s stop glorifying the words of self-important jerks like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and so many other tech bros (notice how there is no corresponding group of tech gals). Instead, let’s put the words of actual climate scientists front and center.
Global heating is not an opinion, it is scientific fact. We are all Jamaica and we are all going to get crushed by the monster we have created unless we stop filling the communal pool with the detritus of fossil fuel extraction, refining, and consumption. Among the world’s nations, only China seems to be taking the danger seriously enough today.
Each of us must do what we can to address the gathering storm. If your government won’t do it, throw the bums out and elect leaders who will. The planet you save could be your own.
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