It Is Not Climate Change. It Is Climate Catastrophe!

The future is not for the faint of heart — or the poor

Photo by YODA Adaman on Unsplash

The term “climate change” is anemic on purpose to allay fears of the general public and diminish its significance.

Who pays for the climate change that has become a climate catastrophe? The poor and middle class bear the brunt of physical damage, financial burden, and social hardship of climate catastrophe. Their houses are burned by forest fires or turned to sodden heaps of kindling by hurricanes and tornadoes. Their cars are flooded or blown away. Water is being cut off in whole communities because of drought.

These catastrophes cause economic mayhem for those that can least deal with it. The retired must go back to work. Savings are wiped out. Many lose everything, even their loved ones. They must grieve in a state of poverty, homelessness, and hopelessness.

A storm like Ian that hit the Florida panhandle devastates people that can’t afford flood insurance. Unless you are a multimillionaire, you can only afford the houses built by real estate developers according to code that is established, in part, by real estate developers to hold down costs.

To truly withstand category 4 hurricanes bordering on category 5 you have to have a house built of steel and concrete 16 feet off the ground with foundations going down to bedrock or substantial artificial anchors. How many houses do you see like that on the coast of Florida? They are few and far between, and they are owned by multi-millionaires.

Tornado Alley has become Dixie Alley as more severe tornadoes touch down in a more populated midwest and southeast rather than the high plains. Now even more people can be wiped out financially and literally.

The middle class has been priced out of desirable but dangerous areas.

The middle class can’t afford to live on the coast where there is a yearly chance for hurricanes. They think they can until climate catastrophe combined with developers’ construction practices becomes a financial disaster.

The western United States is in its worst drought in 1200 years. And it’s not just the Colorado River, Lake Mead, and Lake Powell drying up; it’s the Mississippi…