Hurricane Season Ends
Spared the wrath of Dean and Felix, the U.S. squeaked through another hurricane season without a major calamity. (Well, that's assuming no storms make landfall before Friday, the official last day of the season.)
But, as Claire Wilkinson of the III’s Terms and Conditions blog reminds us, while we can breathe a sigh of relief, there’s no cause for optimism. Hurricanes—including ones as devastating as Katrina and Rita—will be a routine part of the national drama for generations to come.
As if that weren’t enough, the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says southern coastal areas will also have to cope with more frequent and more deadly heat waves and will be “increasingly stressed by climate change impacts interacting with development and pollution.” Additionally, crops that are on the upper threshold of their temperature range will become untenable.
It's clear that something has got to give in the next 50-100 years. But what? Here are a couple scenarios:
- Massive demographic relocation away from coastal areas
- Complete industry pullout from coastal areas
- Both
Or am I simply a deranged doomsayer? I would like nothing more than to be assured that things are not as bad as they seem.
OK. I know that the holidays are stressful enough without having to read apocalyptic posts on the Agent Blog. If you need to self-medicate with some escapist humor, check this out.
