I'm sure that there are some who will question whether the current flurry of hurricanes and storms is linked to global warming. The answer is, no, not really. Any contributions that global warming currently makes to this issue are minimal.
As reported by the Guardian, this is a natural global weather trend that cycles over decades. In fact, up until recently, the number of hurricanes was going down. Now, they will go up for the next 20 years or so.
However, the storms should serve as a reminder of how powerful nature is, and why we don't want to mess with it. After 9/11, we declared a war on terrorism, and have had rapid, massive changes to our foreign and domestic policies, to our national priorities, to our institutions and even our rights. We have mobilized massive resources to battle this threat. But, as these storms should remind us, if the very weather turns against us, if we create an enemy out of nature, the costs to our economy and our lives will be just as high as in any war.
Just as everyone stresses how it is better to fight the enemy "over there" than at home, I would rather fight the war against global warming now, while most of its effects are relatively small and being felt far away, than wait until our coastlines are being flooded, our disease rates are out of control, increased numbers of the elderly and ill people are dying from extreme temperatures, and our food supplies are threatened.
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