Politicizing Hurricane Sandy, Yes We Must – Climate Change

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Feeling lucky, blessed and hopeful…

Watching the news, hearing from friends, seeing video and pictures via social media, walking around my own neighborhood, the local devastation and destruction within a 20 mile radius from my home is almost too much for me to take in.

Coping, each of us usually decides that we can deal with “our own little world” and manage it as best as we can. I have shared photos and feelings leading up to and including our waiting for and living with Hurricane Sandy. This storm should serve as a “wake up call” and force each of us to “connect the dots” and consider how our individual and collective actions have been and will shape our world and that of our neighbors, country and future generations.

My family “dodged the Sandy bullet” as falling trees and wires missed our home, but sadly didn’t miss some of our friends and neighbors homes.

Unbelievably our power came back on Tuesday night, 36 hours after it went out. I am feeling in many ways similar to the way I felt after 9/11 when we lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a few miles and a world away from what would be a life changing event for us and many of our friends. Today I feel guilty that we were spared from suffering when so many others we know were not. I feel guilty that we can “try to be normal” when for many “normal” may never again be. As we did then we do now, we have opened our home to family, friends and neighbors. I also feel incredibly lucky and blessed that we can help bring a sense of “normalcy” back for others, even if just for a short time.

I also feel strangely hopeful that this disaster will be an important wake up call for the United States on the eve of a presidential election that will shape the future course of this country. Climate change is. It is now, it is happening and we are living it. We need to stop debating the facts that are already clear and begin to prepare, to adapt and to mitigate the damages that have and will befall us. We need to move forward to figure out how to “keep the lights on” using 21st century technology, powered by 21st century energy sources, not 20th century carbon based fossil fuels. We need to recognize how WE have become the dominant forcing agent on the planet, and how we need to change this course from bad to good.

Take a minute or two and watch this short video with the kids in your life. It was created by our Australian friend, colleague, father and grandfather, John Price the founder of GranKidzFuture. The video was created before Hurricane Sandy hit the eastern seaboard and resonates loudly because of it. While John speaks to our responsibility to future generations, we should look to this as a wake up call that identifies our responsibility to this generation as well.

Climate change isn’t red, blue, white or fuchsia, and it shouldn’t be a partisan or political issue; however it has become one, particularly in the United States of America. A major party in this country has been “occupied” by climate deniers, forcing their way into and onto the party platform. This can no longer be condoned, ignored or denied. When the polls open on Tuesday, and in those areas where there is early voting, climate change and how we will confront it’s impacts on our economy, on job creation and on our future and our children’s future needs to be considered and should BE one of the most important deciding factors.

Yours,

Climate Mama