National Advocacy Center
  • Who We Are
    • About
    • Staff & Advisory Board
    • Partners
    • Good Shepherd Sisters
    • Of Note News >
      • Of Note Archives 2022
      • Of Note Archives 2021
      • Of Note Archives 2020
      • Of Note Archives 2019
      • Of Note Archives 2018
      • Of Note Archives 2017
      • Of Note Archives 2016
      • Of Note Archives 2015
    • Contact
  • Act for Justice
    • Road to Justice
    • Human Trafficking Conference >
      • HT Packet & Digital Toolkit
    • Giving
    • Outreach
  • Issues
    • Central America
    • Economic Justice
    • End Racism
    • Human Trafficking >
      • Know the Signs
      • Trafficking Resources
    • Immigration & Refugees
    • Muslim Relations
    • Women & Children
  • Resources
    • Advocacy Tools
    • Analysis for Action
    • Poetry Library

Enduring the Storm

8/30/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture


On Labor Day, September 2nd, 1935, a powerful hurricane devastated the Florida Keys. The storm killed hundreds of veterans at Civil Conservation Corps camps with the combined impacts of high winds and high waters. The winds were so powerful that the storm overturned a Florida East Coast railroad train that was sent too late to evacuate the veterans. ​Ernest Hemingway in his article for New Masses entitled “Who Murdered the Vets” described the wreckage. ​

Picture
​The loss of life, he charged, was the direct result of United States policy and failed planning. He wrote that whoever put the veterans in the dangerous environment during hurricane season without effective evacuation plans was directly responsible for the hundreds of deaths. There had been plenty of early warning, several days in fact. Ships at sea and communications from Cuba tracked the developing storm. Despite this, government officials in Florida and Washington failed to take measures to protect the highly exposed veterans.
Picture
​​​This Labor Day, September 2, 2019, we are again confronted with a powerful hurricane bearing down on Florida. The National Hurricane Center anticipates storm, Dorian, to be a category four storm upon landfall. Unlike 1935, today we have better tools to forecast storm characteristics. We measure wind velocity, water temperature, and barometric pressure and with these values we plot the motion and intensity of storms. Furthermore, we issue evacuation orders and position disaster relief resources for quick response. Federal, state and local governmental agencies are springing into action to mitigate the storm’s impact. Although the forecast contains some uncertainty, few, if any, are denying the facts compiled through scientific measurement. Those who dismiss the warnings risk great peril. 

​The storm is being intensified by climate change. Water temperature is a key variable among the converging weather forces, and global warming is a key factor in rising water temperatures. Storm intensity characteristics of wind and rainfall react to water temperature. Water temperature, among other environmental factors, contributes to rising ocean levels. Ocean levels then contribute to storm surge. A massive storm is the result of the interaction of numerous convergent factors.
 
Some of these factors, those intensified by climate change, can be eased somewhat by addressing climate change globally. The immediate forecast for action, however, is dismal.  The United States, a major contributor of carbon dioxide and methane, two accelerants of climate change, is doing little to help control or reverse the damaging factors impacting climate change. Fossil fuel usage is continuing at unacceptable levels. This, in turn, creates compounded problems. For example, this week the federal government approved mineral mining, natural gas extraction, and forest harvesting at the Tongass National Forest in Southeastern Alaska. This is a double-edged sword disaster. The mineral mining and gas extraction will release methane, plus the gas, at some point, will be burned, spewing carbon dioxide into the environment. Forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Cutting down the forest while at the same time emitting more CO2 seriously intensifies the impact of either activity. Approval for destruction of the Alaskan natural resources comes while the Amazon rainforest is burning.
 
Individually, we can and should continue to do all we can to minimize our own carbon footprint by reducing automobile usage, recycling, reusing, and repurposing. We can support environmental organizations both locally and nationally through money and time. We can continue to press the federal government to act. Republican Senate leadership, specifically Sen. Mitch McConnell, is blocking meaningful legislation. Despite Trump’s failure to attend the G7 Climate session last week, his office should also be contacted. Perhaps overwhelming pressure will prompt administration action.
 
Unlike the veterans on the Florida Keys on Labor Day 1935, we have had plenty of scientific warning about climate change. Failure to globally act has resulted in converting climate change to climate crisis. The veterans died because the government failed to act to protect them from the storm. We cannot permit the continued obstruction and counter-productive measures of the current administration to continue to leave us unprotected.
 
In the United States’ exhausting national political environment, it is easy and understandable to wrap ourselves in an emotional and psychological cocoon. Administration atrocities deepen almost daily and consume us. Kids are in cages. Migrants are in dangerous concentration camps. Farmers are devastated by ill-conceived tariffs. Urban dwellers are insulted with taunts of “rat infested” while at the same time the federal budget removed rodent control funding for cities. We are experiencing the most amoral, corrupt and cruel administration in the history of the United States. Action on so many fronts is more than frustrating, it’s exhausting. Just this week immigrant parents of sick children were notified they have 33 days to leave the country or be deported. Imagine having to remove a child from life saving medical care and, in effect, causing that child to die. Why the government issued a death warrant for these children is beyond me. 
Picture

​The good news is that although we can’t ease the current natural hurricane, we can help those who survive it. Likewise, although we can't stop the political hurricane sweeping the nation, we can fight back. In the immediate time frame we can block the cruel deportation of sick kids. Hospitals, doctors, staff, parents, community organizers and activists can physically block ICE access to hospitals. We can do whatever is possible to reduce our carbon footprint, even if just a little. We can become activists and support others who are. We don’t have to take the callousness and cruelty of the Trump Administration passively. We can and should fight back. Finally, we must vote and remove climate deniers from office if we expect to have any chance to alleviate the climate crisis.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    John "Jack" Lawlor, Jr., is Professor of History Emeritus at Reading (PA) Area Community College. He firmly believes all people have an obligation to be good stewards of the earth, hand down a healthy planet to the next generation, and prepare them to do the same.


    RSS Feed

    From the Sisters....

    Good Shepherd priorities are outlined in a series of Position Papers that have their source in the spirituality, vision, mission, and heritage of the Congregation .  Read or print the 2018 Position Paper on the Integral Ecology by clicking here.  To read or print the complete series, click here.  ​For more background on the Good Shepherd 2018 Position Papers and to access them in Spanish, French or English, visit this site.
    Want more? Sign up for updates, resources, action alerts. Rise Up & Act for Justice.
    Sign Up

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019

    Categories

    All

NAC Quick Links

Ways to Act

Reach out to your elected officials and others on important policy decisions impacting the common good.
Act for Justice

Stay Informed

​Our email network alerts you to legislative news and directly connects you with lawmakers.
Sign Up

Advocacy Tools

Learn how to personally advocate for change and access other advocacy resources.
Access Tools

Our Issues

We advocate for laws that benefit the marginalized, especially families, women and children.  
Learn More

Contact

National Advocacy Center
of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd

504 Hexton Hill Road
​Silver Spring, MD  20904

Phone 301.622.6838 | Fax 301.384.1025
E-mail us
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Website design adapted and modified by Perisphere Media.