Humanity this week experienced ecological disasters on an unprecedented scale. Flooding on the Gulf Coast and in South Asia impacted 60 million people, killed 1,200, and destroyed or damaged close to 1 million homes. In one week, parts of Houston received as much rain as they usually receive in a year—one trillion gallons. The National Weather Service said the storm is “unprecedented and all impacts are unknown and beyond anything experienced.” Explosions occurred at a chemical plant near Houston, and millions of pounds of hazardous chemicals were released into the air. In India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, record floods swept away people, animals, and property, and left as much as a third of Bangladesh under water. We all feel for these people.
Infrared view of Hurricane Harvey
The Houston metro area has 6.6 million people, making it one of the largest in the U.S. Greater Houston was built partly on swampland, in what is essentially a large flood plain. But that's only part of the story.
Climate change is increasing the risk of flooding by making extreme weather events more intense, as leading climate scientists say. Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and a lead author of the 2017 National Climate Assessment, states that climate change is generating more moisture in the atmosphere. This is increasing the amount and intensity of rain that falls during hurricanes and other storms. Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, a climate scientist at the University of Georgia, notes that climate change is warming the water in the Gulf of Mexico, which has created a "stream of moisture that is just firehosing in the Houston region." In brief, warmer water and moister air that stem from climate change are contributing to the record-breaking catastrophic flooding we are seeing. Houston is also getting hotter, with an average of 106 days per year with a high of 90° F (32° C) or above.
While experiencing climate change first-hand, Houston remains one of the places in the world that most profits from extracting and refining oil. The Greater Houston Partnership lauds the city as the "Energy Capital of the World," a "petrochemical powerhouse," where "new energy technologies such as horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and deep water offshore technology began or are centered.” Houston is also known as the "chemical coast," and has many Superfund toxic cleanup sites that have contributed to contaminating the floodwaters. (To its credit, Texas leads the U.S. in wind energy generation, with 20 gigawatts, which provided 12% of the state's electricity.)
By continuing with business as usual, we exploit and use oil and gas at record levels, despite the warnings of scientists. Scientists have revealed something important about how the earth works: the more oil we extract, refine and burn, the more Houston and Southeast Texas will alternately bake and flood.
Flooding in a Houston neighborhood
The New York Times recently quoted Maya Wadler, a teenager in Houston whose family's home was just flooded. “I usually just trust my parents that everything is going to be OK. But I looked up and I saw that my dad was closing his eyes, the water was getting in his eyes. And I just thought: He has absolutely no idea where we are going to go.”
This situation has striking similarities to the ship Titanic, whose captain, Edward Smith, received warnings of potential icebergs ahead, and ignored them. He believed that the ship—the largest ever built—was stronger than nature, and unsinkable. Minutes before the Titanic hit the iceberg, steaming at full speed, people on the ship were going about their normal business, assuming that everything was fine. By the time the crew spotted an iceberg, it was too late to turn the ship to avoid it. Then the ship hit the iceberg and everything changed.
The Titanic sank for many reasons. Captain Smith missed the window of opportunity he was given, based on a misguided belief that a ship could withstand hitting an iceberg. Most people on the ship perished because they falsely believed that their leaders were taking responsibility for their safety.
Humanity is on a collective ship and we have put ourselves on a collision course with an iceberg of our own making. (See this related, recent post I wrote about humanity drilling holes on a collective ship.) The Titanic and Hurricane Harvey provide critical lessons for the climate crisis we are facing.
First, we are in this together. We are 7.5 billion human beings on the ship and our lifestyles and consumption determine the direction of the ship. Much of society goes on conducting business as usual, while a global consensus of scientists states that this is simply unsustainable. For us to change course, we need to act collectively.Second, we need to change while we still can. Hurricane Harvey bearing down on the Texas Gulf Coast is a warning siren. It provides us a rare glimpse into the degraded future we must prevent. We are heading full-steam ahead for the iceberg and we need to make radical changes in all sectors of society in order to turn around the ship and avert collision with the iceberg.
When any problem arises, there is usually a window of opportunity during which we can address and deal with it. If we ignore the problem for too long, we will lose that window of opportunity, and we are then left to face a catastrophic impact without the ability to do anything about it. Right now, we are in that window of opportunity to address the problem. If we continue with business as usual for the coming years, the window will likely close, jeopardizing our own future as well as that of our children, grandchildren and all species on this planet. Earth to Houston: we have a problem.
Third, we need foresight and long-term thinking. The rabbis of the Talmud taught, “Who is the wise person? The person who can see the effect of their actions and what is to come.” (Tamid 32a) We must not live in a fool's paradise thinking that we can continue on our current course and that everything will be okay.
The moment we learn that an iceberg may be ahead, everything needs to change. We all need to correct course to curb climate change, even though it may be inconvenient. In this country, the philosophy of "live free or die" resonates deeply, and many of us are resistant to changing how way we live or having our freedoms compromised by policies like a carbon tax. Nature goes by a different motto: live sustainably or die, and the Gulf Coast and the Bay of Bengal today proves that sooner or later, our lives will suffer the consequences of our carbon-intensive lifestyles. Choices we can make that impact our carbon footprint include how often we fly, drive a personal car, eat meat, and buy food from outside our locality. We need to put both the present and future of our children and grandchildren first, over maintaining and expanding our own standard of living.
Finally, we need motivation. Beyond all the scientific and political questions about climate control, the question we need to ask ourselves is, how can we control our ship’s direction and speed? By living in balance with creation, we can steer our future with the ultimate goal of the survival of everyone on board.