In this edition of Eco Report, Environmental Correspondent Zero Roze speaks with Robyn Skuya-Boss of the Hoosier Chapter of the Sierra Club about how energy companies in Indiana are dragging their feet when it comes to phasing out the use of fossil fuels responsible for destabilizing the earth’s climate.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says Hurricane Helene was a historic storm. Climate change likely made it worse. The storm’s enormous rainfall totals and rapid increase in intensity both reflect the influence of global warming, scientists say. The full scope of the damage Helene left behind is still coming into focus, but the storm already ranks as one of the most destructive in U.S. history. More than 160 people have been confirmed dead, with hundreds still missing, as responders sort through the wreckage.
Damage caused by the storm could be $160 billion, according to estimates from AccuWeather. While the Atlantic Basin has produced hurricanes for millennia, Helene exhibited traits scientists say are becoming more common as human activity warms the planet. As bad as Helene was, Trump has focused on the aftermath. According to CNN, Trump wrote in a social media post on Thursday that Biden and Harris “are universally being given POOR GRADES for the way that they are handling the Hurricane, especially in North Carolina.”
That wasn’t even close to accurate. Though the Biden administration’s response had certainly received criticism, it had also been praised by various state and local leaders — including the Republican governors of some of the affected states and the Democratic governor of North Carolina, plus local leaders including the Democratic mayor of the hard-hit North Carolina city of Asheville.
It is obvious that Trump would not focus on the fact that he and Republicans have fought against doing things that would counter climate change. Republicans have completely caved to oil and coal interests. Even today, the Indiana legislature does not allow any report or speech to mention “climate change”. They refuse to address legislation which would move Indiana’s economy toward a greener position.
Indiana advertises that it is “business friendly”, which, in part, means that firms that cannot get approval in other states because they would exceed pollution standards, are welcome to locate in Indiana. Trump’s response to the devastation of hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico reveals how concerned he was about rapid recovery.
The effects of the hurricane — the worst storm to strike the island in over 80 years — caused as much as $94 billion in damages. Trump’s response: he gave the contract to repair the electrical grid to Whitefish Energy in Montana. At the time Whitefish Energy employed two people. Trump’s other solution was to pass out paper towels.
The New York Times reported that Helene knocked out a key facility for monitoring the global climate. The National Centers for Environmental Information in Asheville, N.C., gathered data from around the world to help track Earth’s warming. Among the many pieces of critical infrastructure that Hurricane Helene knocked offline in Asheville, N.C., was a key federal office for monitoring the global climate.
Work is underway to get the facility running again, but the outage is likely to delay some agencies’ monthly updates on global warming and other climate indicators. The data center at the National Centers for Environmental Information in Asheville, run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, remained shut down, according to John Bateman, a NOAA spokesman. The building that houses the facility had power but not water, and its network service provider still was not operational.
The National Centers for Environmental Information have headquarters in Asheville and three other main offices around the country. The tools and data they provide are used by farmers, fishermen, businesses, insurers, investors and other organizations. The centers also play a critical role in tracking the global climate: They sweep together information from weather agencies worldwide and make the data easily accessible to researchers. Trump promises to end NOAA when he is re-elected, which would, among many other things, mean hurricanes would hit without warning.
Americans continue to move into areas that are prone to catastrophes. The country’s vast population shift has left more people exposed to the risk of natural hazards and dangerous heat at a time when climate change is amplifying many weather extremes. A New York Times analysis shows the dynamic in new detail:
• Florida, which regularly gets raked by Atlantic hurricanes, gained millions of new residents between 2000 and 2023.
• Phoenix has been one of the country’s fastest-growing large cities for years. It’s also one of the hottest, registering 100 straight days with temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit this year.
• The fire-prone foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada have seen an influx of people even as wildfires in the region become more frequent and severe.
• East Texas metro areas, like Houston, Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth, have ballooned in recent decades despite each being at high risk for multiple hazards, a fact brought into stark relief this year when Hurricane Beryl knocked out power in Houston during a heat wave.
“The more that people are moving into areas exposed to hazards,” said Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia’s Climate School, “the more that these hazards can turn into disasters of larger and larger scale.” In some places, population growth and development have already made disasters worse and more costly, leading to widespread damage and destruction, major stress on infrastructure and soaring losses for insurers and individuals alike.
Yet studies show people continue to flock to many “hazard hotspots.” Americans’ decisions about where to move are largely motivated by economic concerns and lifestyle preferences, experts said, rather than potential for catastrophe. Some move seeking better job prospects and a cheaper cost of living; others are lured by sunnier climates and scenic views.
Feature ReportIn this week’s feature,Environmental Correspondent Zero Roze sat down with the Chapter Director of the Sierra Club to discuss ‘the Dirty Truth’, a new report card which gave Duke Energy an ‘F’ for failing to take Climate Change seriously and deciding to delay our transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Credits:
On Air………………………………….Julianna Dailey
On Air………………………………..Cynthia Roberts
Headlines…………………………………..Norm Holy
Feature Report……………………………..Zero Roze
Script…………………………………..Julianna Dailey
Events Calendar……………………….Julianna Dailey
Engineer……………………………..Branden Blewett
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