Wind and Water

The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the Earth. I smell it in the air.                     Galadriel The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Those first phrases uttered at the beginning of the epic Lord of the Rings movie (one of my favorites. Sorry I'm a geek.) came to my mind the last couple of days as I read the news. One story that is well known dealt with the fierce Santa Ana winds that wreaked havoc on California and Utah. I grew up in Utah and I am familiar with the Santa Ana winds that blow through every autumn. I don't ever remember it being this bad. This is another one of those natural disasters that could make it to the "billion dollar cost" list.

The other report I read dealt with the changing climate conditions in the Arctic region. The story outlines the fact that climate change is definitely happening in and around the North Pole. The Arctic is seeing massive instability in the documented "normal" for that region. It has now moved into a grey area where a different normal has emerged. Climate change is occurring there on a much more rapid scale than scientists have expected, which means our ability to curb the disastrous effects of unmitigated global warming is being cut to an even shorter amount of time. The point of no return is indeed starting to become visible in the very far horizon.

The wind storms deal with air. The warming Arctic ice deals with water. Before modern chemistry, these were two of the four main elements. They are still vitally important to human survival. Though the wind storms will not directly be attributed to climate change or global warming, they will be lumped together with all those natural disasters that, on the whole, point to an ever more unstable climate. The scientists have been warning us for years of the dangers that would be presented to us if the polar ice caps were to melt. We have changed the wind, and we have changed the water.

This is all unnerving. The bad news does seem to continue in an uninterrupted chain with no end in sight. The only good news we can hope for is our continued stride in combating global warming with innovative ideas, and the promise of political action in terms of regulation. We must persevere in the effort to mitigate our impact on the global environment (including climate). We must continue to call for realistic and actionable ideas that will result in a smaller carbon footprint and a cleaner, greener planet. We must continue to pressure lawmakers and world leaders to initiate and enforce regulations that will work for the best interest to the human race and the planet. We must create our own good news, because no one is willing to do it for us.