What Sandy Was

Mitt Romney, the contender for the White House, made fun of President Barack Obama’s environmental preoccupations. Upon accepting his nomination for the Republican candidacy at the convention in Florida, he said: “President Obama promised that he would decrease the rise in the sea level,” then left a calculated pause that was filled by loud laughs from the audience. Immediately thereafter, he came back to earth, so to speak, and left the jokes behind, driving his point home by saying that “my promises are to help all of you and your families.” Romney did not consider climate change a problem that affects people and their families.

Today tens of millions of Americans suffer the consequences from the worst storm that has hit a wide region on the Atlantic Coast. Besides the number of deaths, a first estimate shows the losses amounting to more than $20 billion.

Was Hurricane Sandy the result of global warming? From a scientific point of view, it is complex to pinpoint with precision the cause of every climatic event. This was a storm where three factors coincided: a huge hurricane with enormous rainfall, strong winds that pushed the tide and a full moon that helped them rise even more. Sandy, however, did not appear from nowhere and is part of a clear trend which matches climatologists’ forecasts.

The average hurricane speed has increased by 50 percent in the last half century. Two of the worst experienced in the Western Hemisphere are Mitch in Central America, which left 12 million dead in 1998, and Katrina, which struck New Orleans in 2005 and reached winds of up to 225 kilometers per hour (139.8 mph). It was the third most intense hurricane since record-keeping began in 1851.

It is predicted that in the United States, an increase from 5 to 10 percent in hurricane wind velocity — velocity that relates to the rise in sea temperature — will double the cost of losses suffered by the country. The countries of Central America and the Caribbean have paid exorbitant human and material costs, especially when winds exceed 120 kilometers per hour (74.56 mph).

The cause of this global warming trend is in the greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), which mostly come from the burning of oil and carbon. It is seldom mentioned that the deterioration is derived from an economic model based on an expansion of a consumerism that is not sustainable.

Nowadays it is erroneous to introduce hurricanes, floods and droughts as mere natural disasters. In a sense they are, but the evidence indicates that they worsen due to the changes caused by global warming. Along with constituting natural phenomena they are the result of policies, which in the United States are influenced by the huge oil, petrochemical and car businesses, together with their counterparts in other countries. Interest groups responsible for the largest emissions intend to preserve their lucrative businesses. For this reason they conduct large campaigns in order to prevent environmental protection policies. That, however, is against the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population that suffers the consequences of these changes.

Sandy should end, once and for all, the ironic smile of Romney and others who underestimate the impact of global warming. Whoever wants to know an accurate road map of where the planet is headed would do well to read, if they have not already, the Stern Report regarding the economic cost of climatic change. The British Lord Stern points out that “the climate change represents a unique challenge for the economy, being able to confirm that it is the largest and most widespread failure the market has ever seen in the world.” This means that states have the primary responsibility in correcting the course and caring for the earth and its atmosphere.