The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Thanksgiving 2020…A Few Items To Be Thankful For
Dear Diary. By any measure, the year 2020 will go down in history as one of the worst since World War Two mainly due to an unforseen, horrific pandemic. Last year at this time COVID19 was barely on anyone’s radar, but now it’s on everyone’s worried minds. Here is last year’s post:
Still, we should be thankful for a few recent items on both the COVID19 and climate fronts.
First, we have not one, not two, but three promising vaccines with efficacy rates of at least 90%. I’m confident that people will start getting life saving injections in early 2021. Still, the U.S. death toll alone is likely to push well above 300,000 people before the proverbial cavalry arrives. We must continue to practice social distancing and wear masks during this upcoming deadly winter. Stay isolated at home if you can. I’m confident that there will be a better, healthier good spring in our near future.
For us progressives fighting for a better society, let’s be thankful that the age of Trump is ending. The 2020 election went well, although we lost a few seats to Republicans in the House of Representatives, and the Senate did not firmly flip towards the Democrats. Still, there is a glimmer of hope for us to be working for, especially in my home state of Georgia. The Senate can still mathematically flip if both candidates, Rev. Warnock, and Jon Ossoff, win in a runoff on January 5th. A Biden Presidency should be good for fighting climate change.
Already Biden’s election is paying dividends, even before he is sworn into office in January looking at the world’s reaction. I’m thankful for the selection of John Kerry to a special cabinet position on climate. John Kerry has been a passionate advocate for change and will be a strong leader on climate in the years to come. Also, the Paris Climate Accords will be saved. The United States will once again take a up a leadership mantel to improve international cooperation on climate change mitigation, but we must press hard on action during 2021:
Looking at my notes from Thanksgiving 2019, I continue to be thankful for climate scientists Michael Mann, Katherine Hayhoe, and my friends Dr. Jeff Masters and Bob Henson, now writing now for Yale’s Climate Connections, who continue to have good health and have been great vocal leaders on the climate issue during 2020.
I’m thankful in the last year to have retained my own health to be a leader with the Climate Reality Cobb Chapter, which is trying to make my area of north Georgia green and sustainable.
I’m thankful for great writers like Bill McKibben who succinctly make great points about the latest climate science and effects, communicating urgency for change.
I’m thankful that so many respected newspapers like the Washington Post and New York Times continue to report on climate change, keeping the issue at the forefront of national consciousness.
I’m thankful that my own former place of business, The Weather Channel, has become much more vocal on climate science, linking weather events with climate change. This has particularly been true during a wild hurricane season with names that have gone through half the Greek alphabet…. a horrible record.
Speaking of this hurricane season, most of all I am thankful for all off the first responders and repair crews that have dealt with many strong landfalling storms in 2020. They can’t be thanked enough having to also deal with a simultaneous pandemic. We can’t even begin to thank nurses and doctors who have become bone tired trying to keep people alive from COVID19 infections.
I hope to be around to celebrate a much happier Thanksgiving 2021, giving my readers a list of things to be thankful for that will be much longer than this one. Keep working towards the dream of seeing an all electric world powered by renewables that respects nature’s green spaces. I’ll definitively keep you, my fantastic readers, apprised of any progress as we move through a better year.
Here is more climate and weather news from Thursday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article.)
Now here are some of today’s articles and notes on the horrid COVID-19 pandemic:
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Guy Walton- “The Climate Guy”