Ignoring climate is path to destruction

Recent news reports have reflected on the rapid rate at which tornadoes are striking Illinois.

In 2010, I wrote a paper for my master’s degree elucidating the trend in tornadoes in the Southeast versus rising temperatures. In that paper, I demonstrated how tornadoes were becoming more common with climate change and how tornado intensity would be creeping north along with increasing temperatures. If I extended the timeline for my data to 2024, the trend would be steeper, meaning hotter temperatures and more tornadoes post-2009. Records confirm the steeper incline.

Most of these trends would have signaled the kind of storms we’re now having to occur in 2030. But they are occurring much earlier. Why is that? Part of the acceleration was caused by the Trump presidency. When he reversed hundreds of climate change restrictions, he set the fight against climate change back at least five years. The other part is the Republican Party’s malevolent refusal to recognize climate change.

Here’s an interesting fact: According to the National Weather Service, heat kills more people each year than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined. So, we’re compounding disaster mortality.

Only the uninformed, misinformed, or fossil fuel sycophants deny climate change. Ignoring climate change is a path to self-destruction. So, if you want to stay on this self-destructive path, vote for Trump, no matter who runs against him; and let your children and children’s’ children dance with death.

Jim Arneberg

Hoffman Estates