Just a small sampling of the weather changes this winter in Maine.
Not as cold - not as many below zero temps.
The best way to characterize this winter is 'up and down'.
One day it is quite cold and the next will be quite warm. This is likely why so many Mainers have been sick this winter for longer times.
Our bodies can't adjust to the weather which jeopardizes our immune systems. Everything is out of whack.
Expect more of this in the coming years. That means more illness, ticks not dying off in the winter due to insufficient freezes which adds up to more Lyme Disease and the like.
It also means bugs from the south that attack the trees won't be killed off in the winter and our forests in Maine will be severely impacted.
And what are the politicians doing about all this? Little to nothing.
What should they be doing? Here is a short list:
- Convert the war machine, which is the biggest industrial polluter on earth, to build sustainable technologies. This process would actually create more jobs.
- Build a commuter rail system reaching every corner of Maine getting us out of our fossil fuel burning cars. This process would also create more jobs. Old-timers in Maine remember when there was once a passenger rail system throughout the state.
- Put solar every place possible in Maine instead of continued emphasis on industrial centralized electrical production.
- Quickly develop the offshore wind power program (it's being done in many places around the world). The Gulf of Maine has the most wind capacity of any place in the continental US.
- Cancel one expensive destroyer at Bath Iron Works and use the money to weatherize homes all over the state. Another job producer
I'm sure you could offer many suggestions as well - I'd love to hear them. The point is that we are facing a climate crisis - a climate catastrophe - and we need action and leadership now!
Demand it for the sake of the future generations.
Bruce
