The last two years of atmospheric temperature have amazed and frightened me. Back some 70 years ago, the US Air Force sent me to school to get a masters degree in meteorology. I worked as a weatherman for the Air Force for years and then for a bit at TWA before joining IBM. I also flew into hurricanes out of Bermuda for a few months. So even though I formally left the weather to ply a trade with computers, I never really stopped noticing and caring about the weather. In fact, the internet kept adding to the information available on line. So bolstered by my computer acumen and weather background, I learned and absorbed more about the weather as time passed. Today, there is more information and data about the weather and climate on line than we ever had in the 1950’s, information we needed to forecast weather and winds professionally. I still keep my hand in it.
So what am I driving at? Well, in almost 70 years of observing weather, I have never seen heat waves like this. The climate change naysayers say the heat waves are cyclical. That’s BS and I say that from personal experience. Hurricanes are more intense and are more common on the gulf coast. Hurricanes are fed by warm water. Years ago, the hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico were moderated. They stirred up the water bringing colder water to the surface which stilted the intensification. Now, the warm water goes down too far so the gulf hurricanes become category 4 and 5 before making landfall taking a terrible toll on the coastal cities and towns.
The warming of the earth is melting the polar glaciers which in turn warms everything. I saw recent photos of the Greenland ice cap which I flew over many times in the 50’s and could not believe the devastation I saw. The Switzerland glaciers that we skied in the summer in the 70’s have mostly disappeared. We must do much more than we are doing to reverse or at least stop it. Fossil fuels are killing us. People say we will destroy the earth. No. The earth will survive. Its inhabitants will die. I suggest that those that deny climate have to be shut up or answered firmly. The oil industry must be held to task. Money is not everything.
