She was worried about last week's report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that warned of near future devastating droughts, world-wide shortages of food and water, rising coastal waters, behemoth wildfires and a massive dying off of sea life, all due to a catastrophic warming of the planet from greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels (1).
My daughter and her husband were talking about keeping several month's supply of non-perishable food, water and other life-sustaining necessities on hand. She wanted to know if Tom and I were planning on doing the same.
"What for?" I asked her, "According to the report the crisis is twenty years away."
"Mom," said my daughter, "the crisis is here. There are already food, water and gas shortages in Florida."
"Oh, well, that's just because of the hurricane," said I. But then it hit me: It's warming global temperatures that are causing the bigger, slower, wetter - and consequently stronger and more destructive - hurricanes (2).
And the the response to the dire Climate Change report by the person who has the power to get the wheels turning to do something to prevent the coming disaster?
1. "Major Climate Report Describes A Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040," https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/climate/ipcc-climate-report-2040.html
2. "A Warmer World Makes Hurricanes Wetter and More Intense,"
https://www.apnews.com/47d8e0bf05354260931de08ad9976a37
3. "Record-breaking rain leads to DFW's Wettest Autumn Yet. Will We See More Flooding?"
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/weather/article220156395.html4,
4. "Flooding Concerns Stretch Into Another Day in Central Texas," https://abcnews.go.com/US/flooding-concerns-stretch-day-central-texas/story?id=58581093
5."California Fire Now the Largest in State History,"
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/07/us/california-fires-mendocino.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/17/us/hurricane-michael-aftermath-wxc/index.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/10/14/hurricane-michaels-aftermath-shortages-mourning-darkness/1641106002/
https://www.wxyz.com/news/national/survivors-scramble-for-food-and-water-in-the-wake-of-hurricane-michael
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/15/us/hurricane-michael-lines-food-gas.html
http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/gas-shortages-in-wake-of-hurricane-michael
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/17/florida-hurricane-michael-looters-target-homes-without-power
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/16/us/texas-llano-river-flooding/index.html