This weekend’s snow storm – or “storm event” as the weathermen seem to be calling it nowadays – was the conclusion to a crazy autumn of weather in Cape May County, and the mid-Atlantic states for that matter.
With our local weather influenced by the close proximity of the Atlantic Ocean and 13-mile wide Delaware Bay, snowfall totals were much less than the 23″ that Philadelphia officially received. The Wildwoods had about 2 inches, with Rio Grande about 4″, Cape May Court House about 6″, Swainton 8″, and Dennis Township nearly 12″. By going just 16 miles north from Wildwood, the snowfall amount drastically increased. By the time you got to Egg Harbor or Hammonton in Atlantic County, you’re talking two feet of the white powder. What kept Cape May County towns down in snow amounts was the amount of time we got rain, mid-storm, instead of snow.
A look back at the Fall of 2009 foreshadows the significant precipitation. September saw at least 7″ of rain, over double the normal. October had nearly 9″ of rain, triple the norm. November was normal, but the first half of December again had triple precipitation. Doesn’t it seem like since May its been one day of heavy rain, followed by two days of drying out, then the cycle repeats over and over and over again for the next six months?
All this brings me to the raging controversy – global warming. Believe it or not, you can’t deny that our industrial century of spewing CO2 into the atmosphere has had an effect on our weather. And lives. We have more extremes of heat and cold, floods and drought.
When the US Chamber of Commerce recently challenged the science behind climate change, they discovered that much of their membership did not agree. Nike stepped down from its seat on the board of directors, and General Electric disavowed that the Chamber spoke for all it’s members, or even the majority. Apple, Exelon, and Pacific Gas & Electric quit the chamber in protest, as did others.
Still, only 57% of Americans now believe the earth is warming, down from 77% in 2006. This despite the fact the 8 of the 10 warmest years in recorded weather history (about 125 years) have come in the last 14 years. The Arctic is warmer than it has been in 2,000 years and ships now routinely sail through Arctic waters, a notion unthinkable two decades ago.
Few will deny that our dependence on petroleum must be drastically curtailed, whether for economic or climate reasons. The answer, of course, is wind power, solar power, and water power. These will be the norms in 30 years and civilization will look back at petroleum and wonder what took so long. By then, petroleum will only be for plastics, perfumes, and manufacturing, and a barrel of crude oil will fetch about $10.
The emergence of these “green” energy sources threaten another dirty industry. The coal states – West Virginia, Kentucky, Wyoming, Colorado, to name the biggies – continue to argue for jobs over an end to mountaintop removal and generating electricity via coal-fired plants. Locally, the power station in Beesleys Point uses 90 coal cars of the black death each week, yes, WEEK! Directly downwind is Ocean City, which has the most polluted air in the county. Nationally, 27% of all CO2 emissions come from coal-fired power plants!
Green energy will create more jobs than ending our dependency on oil and coal will lose. Eventually the east coast, mountain ridges nationwide, and the flat midwest will be dotted with windmills. The southwest will have hundreds of square miles of solar panels.
These scenarios are going to happen. The sooner the better, I say.
While the earth goes in cycles and it is in a natural warming cycle right now, CO2 is accelerating the warming. The earth has shown that all warming cycles end in an ice age. This one will, too.
I’m still cold from this weekend’s snow event and sub-freezing temperatures. Let’s move forward on slowing down global warming so the next ice age doesn’t get here anytime too soon.
- Mountain Man