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“Whatever we did to upset Mother Nature, tell her I’m sorry,” said the Mayor of a North Jersey town, as he surveyed the damage before him. Waking up on October 30th, up and down the Northeastern US, residents felt like t
hey just received the “knock out punch” from a string of natural disasters that started with Hurricane Irene at the end of August, and has now culminated in the worst early snow storm in recorded history. In fact, in my own corner of New Jersey, there were more people affected by power outages and more downed trees than anyone can ever remember, from any disaster – natural or man made.
My neighborhood resembles a war zone. It is as if a series of cluster bombs 
have gone off, flattening trees and pulling down power lines. What only one day before were beautiful maples, oaks, and birches, bursting with fall colors – painted by nature using a spectacular f
all color palette, seemingly a special autumn gift – now resembled a war zone, or the destructive path of a tornado.
Schools across the region have already been cancelled, in some cases, it seems for days to come. Driving and even walking the streets in many neighborhoods is incredibly treacherous due to hanging tree limbs, blocked roads from fallen trees and downed power lines. My children want to know, “will Halloween be cancelled?”
So Mr. Mayor, are you really sorry, and more importantly, are you willing to do something about it. When are we going to “connect the dots” and make the connections between our warming planet, air that now holds more moisture than just a few years ago, powerful storms and more extreme precipitation events, and anthropogenic climate change. How many more severe storms, power outages and warnings from mother nature need we endure, before we take action and stop our addiction to fossil fuels, stop treating our atmosphere like an open sewer and start putting people to work building and growing renewable energy and green power generation. We need policy changes that will encourage renewable energy, energy efficiency, move us away from factory farming, thoughtless consumerism and towards sustainable forestry and the promotion of thoughtful treatment and kindness to our planet earth, and to ourselves. Grab the kids in your life and talk about what is happening around us, and more importantly why!
I am sorry Mother Nature. I hear you and I am trying to help.
Yours,
Climate Mama
