Saturday, September 16, 2017

The Benefits of Hurricanes

Worth Reading: Thinking the Unthinkable about Hurricanes.By Brian C. Joondeph
Excerpt: First, if global warming has been occurring for the past several decades, at least since Time and Newsweek warned us in the mid 1970s of the perils of the coming ice age, why are Harvey and Irma the first major hurricanes to hit the US since 2005? We should have been getting pounded each and every year with ever more severe hurricanes. Didn’t Al Gore tell us that Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was just the beginning? Why the 12-year hurricane drought? Second, if global warming is causing more superstorms, why is Hurricane Irma ranked only number seven in severity of storms to hit the US? The worst being in 1935, before SUVs existed and when air conditioners were a rare luxury. ... Suppose hurricanes happen for a different reason? What if there are benefits from hurricanes, a necessary part of the Earth’s ecosystem? Could hurricanes be Mother Nature’s way of driving the Earth through a high-pressure car wash? Despite the devastation caused by major hurricanes, these may be part of an ecosystem cycle, much in the way the National Park Service describes forest fires. Necessary and beneficial, despite their destruction.

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