Frog and locusts

After a week in which people living along the U.S. eastern seaboard experienced both an earthquake and a hurricane it was tempting for some to start talking about the end of days.

What it is, most certainly, is an end of is a summer that won't be easily forgotten for reasons of geology and meteorology. The earthquake, of course, is something of a standout. They do occur at regular enough intervals in the eastern U.S. but rarely at close to six on the Richter scale as was the case last week with the 5.8 temblor that rumbled into life miles below the surface of a small Virginia town called, interestingly enough, Mineral.

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As one geologist explained, the reason why this quake was felt from Maine to Georgia was because the sub-surface rock in the eastern half of the continent is older and harder than rock on the western half. The effect was like ringing a bell. And it was a bell most of us heard, or at least felt.

As if that wasn't enough the weekend delivered Hurricane Irene. The two events were in no way related but people easily draw links and comparisons between such noticeable phenomena so the frogs and locusts jokes were quick to follow. At this stage it would be premature to rule anything out.

Hurricanes are normal this time of year but Irene was untypical by virtue of the path taken. In terms of news coverage the storm was a category five even if the wind itself never exceeded three and for the most part was a two, one or a sub-hurricane tropical storm.

To a degree, the debate over climate change is warped by the fact of reporting. There are indeed many more people affected by severe weather-related events so we are all to speed, and then some, on tornadoes, droughts, floods, hurricanes, blizzards and so forth.

It would seem to many that weather patterns are changing and becoming more extreme simply based on all the reporting we absorb from television, newspapers, radio and the various forms of new media.

But simple awareness of events is not enough when it comes to deciding whether or not these events are normal, part of a pattern that is temporary, or linked to entirely new climate rends.

Science comes in here, but also politics as the debate over whether or nor there is such a thing as climate change, global warming or whatever it might be termed, has indeed become politicized.

The way the political winds blow is of crucial importance if there is any scientific basis at all for climate change theory. And if we can be certain of one thing in politics, it is that there is a surfeit of warm air.

The issue of warming is already surfacing in the context of the 2012 presidential election with Texas governor and GOP hopeful Rick Perry suggesting that many scientists are making thing up in order to keep their hands on funding.

Against an assertion such as this it is not a bad idea to ask ourselves a few questions, not least the one that revolves around whether recent weather events are something new and potentially harmful, or that there are simply more people in the way every time the weather turns dangerous. It is not an easy question to answer definitively but it forms just part of a debate that could turn out to be most crucial for all our future prospects. As such, all candidates for high office need to approach the matter with more rigor than Mr. Perry who is presiding over a state that has been scorched brown in recent months by heat that has been memorable even by Texan standards.

As the summer begins to give way to fall we might be saying goodbye for now to some of the more extreme kinds of weather events that have been so evident since spring. If we find ourselves not saying goodbye then we know something's really up.

If that's the case we could well end up wishing for frogs and locusts if for no other reason than a little mild relief.

 

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