Hurricane Harvey set a new standard for natural disasters in the United States due to rain events. I heard a monsoon deluge in India and Bangladesh has been much worse in terms of loss of life, with deaths estimated at 1000. The Harvey death toll is at 45 casualties as I write this on Friday night.
My home in Austin, Texas has been spared the powerful rains and flooding experienced in Houston. We are only 150 miles from Houston but gained protection from a high pressure system in the atmosphere. The high pressure system from the west formed a wall which kept the storm parked over Houston, stalled in place and dumping monumental amounts of water on American's fourth largest city.
The near non-stop television coverage tells the story of Hurricane Harvey and with great poignancy. Video footage of entire families wading through waist-deep water or being picked up by Good Samaritans in flat bottom boats reveals the best side of humanity. The outpouring of love and support across America has been a source of hope on the future our our nation. The cooperative effort to assist in Houston's recovery has transcended race, ethnic, religious, political and economic divisions. The Houston story may not provide an easy way out of our political partisanship, but the flotilla of citizens rescuing Houstonians in boats makes a powerful contrast to Charlottesville, Virginia, and its hurtful image of neo-Nazis muttering racist chants.
We can also learn much about our own bad habits from a storm most often referred to as "unprecedented." Unprecedented means never happened before. That's a key concept. We must try to explain how 50 inches of rain get dumped on a city. Houston's previous Biblical-style deluge, the Great Flood of 1935, produced only 15 inches of rain. Something has changed in 82 years, meteorologically speaking. We have turned the Gulf of Mexico into a much more efficient rain-making machine. Modern man loves his mechanical toys, many of them carbon producing, and has managed to raise the temperature of the oceans. Not an easy feat, and mainly accomplished in a century or two of industrialization.
There doesn't seem much hope for changing man's carbon-burning habits. I've heard about electric cars, etc., but I ain't that impressed. Sorry Elon Musk. One thing Democrats and Republicans agree on wholeheartedly is a passion for the automobile. With Port Arthur, Texas, home to the biggest oil refineries in the United States, temporarily shut down, people form lines at Texas gas stations. The fear of going a day without gasoline is palpable and real. I would not call the collective anxiety at near-panic levels a high level of consciousness regarding climate change.
If we locate an escape mechanism from mankind's deeply ingrained habits, the answer must lie in our better angels-- the side of humanity animated by the spirit of Houston. We need to rescue ourselves; the stresses of global climate change endanger us all though the poor seem to suffer the most.
No amount of money can refreeze a melted iceberg. The challenges lie ahead are daunting and Hurricane Harvey and Houston's suffering may work as the proverbial canary in the coal mine, our powerful message of warning. The coal mine analogy may add an element of ambiguity when it comes to understanding climate change-- coal mines only add to the problem. But we would do well to hold on to hurricane images: Katrina, Superstorm Sandy and now Harvey, images of cities turned into lakes. Not sure if it will be the fire next time or Noah's ark... but let's respect nature's ability to surprise and overwhelm us or the unprecedented will become all to common.
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