Sinking sinking sinking

 How much bad news is needed to make people aware of the climate change crisis? There have been extreme temperatures in the Northwest part of the United States and in Canada. There have been floods in Germany with many lives lost. Will it be necessary for one of the US states to sink beneath the water before climate change is taken seriously? This may actually happen.. The Guardian writer Oliver Milman reported on 30.072021;

"Greenland’s vast ice sheet is undergoing a surge in melting, with the amount of ice vanishing in a single day this week enough to cover the whole of Florida in two inches of water, researchers have found." (SOURCE)

and the article goes on:

"This rate of ice loss, which is accelerating as temperatures continue to increase, is changing ocean currents, altering marine ecosystems and posing a direct threat to the world’s low-lying coastal cities, which risk being inundated by flooding. A 2019 research paper found the Greenland ice sheet could add anything between 5cm and 33cm to global sea levels by the end of the century. "

This means that the problem is not just relevant to the state of Florida, but much of the German and the British and and other European coastlines, to say nothing of parts of Africa and Asia. Unfortunately excess water is not the only problem. A lack of water can be as well. Annette McGivney wrote on 29 July 2021:

"At Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, the water line has dropped to a historic low, taking a heavy toll on the local industry." (SOURCE)

The problem is not merely recreational. McGivney goes on to write:

"Beyond impacts to recreation, climate change is creating other big problems for Lake Powell and its sister reservoirs in the Colorado River storage system that provides water to 40 million people in the western United States. The entire system is depleted from extreme drought conditions and Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir, is expected to reach a record low in August that will trigger the first ever mandatory water cutbacks to Arizona and Nevada."
 

It is easy to complain that other people ought to recognize the climate crisis and ought to change their ways of life. We in St. George's Parish may not be able to rescue the world on our own, but we can set a good example for others by doing more to protect God's creation.

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