Global Warming?

Being from the Northeast, and living at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains, I would like to focus on this area – regarding – climate changes and changes in and around this area and on the northern shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

The year was 1916; the Northeast suffered 12 days of extreme heat, unusual, unheard-of; causing death, illness, and businesses to close. People ran to the shore to cool off – not knowing it would be one of the most dangerous weeks at the beach.

Due to higher water temperature, no one gave a thought about what would be lingering, knee-high, at the shore.  No one ever heard of the great white shark as it maneuvered its way into ponds where swimming holes would be shallow yet deep enough for these giant sharks.

Why they went inland and killed so many people is still a question, we know the heat of the water may have thrown them off course, and changes due to weather patterns and other natural events can alter the sharks normal habit.  The deaths due to shark attacks were like no other, as the heat barreled down on the cities. Almost 100 years later we are finding conditions like those in 1916 but they are not improving, it is not a one-time event, and more great whites are found and other sharks close to shore, and more people are attacked. Today we are not talking only about sharks we are talking about the harbor seal the harp seal, the hooded seal porpoise, and dolphins.

Due to global warming, we are no longer surprised when we find a shark in places not seen before. These changes are due to weather patterns and other natural events which are long periods of rain prior to extreme heat. Think about this season, this spring we have had torrential downpours sometimes lasting a week – switching to extremely high temperatures.

Living at the foot of the Adirondacks – two weeks ago the back porch, the thermostat read 103°. Two days later Whiteface Mountain received 3 feet of snow, two days after this, the snowfall which made national news disappeared because of 90 degrees in the same area, where I was sitting on the deck of a hotel at Lake Placid and there was not one bit of snow on the mountain.

The setting tells me it’s hard to ignore the high heat and rains during May and June 1916 – which is identical to the years of research, regarding global warming – 1916 was the precursor to the storm.

For most of my childhood, receiving 3 to 4 feet of snow in the winter, during one snowfall, was common.  The last big snowstorm was in 1970, in November.  Now we are apt to receive inches instead of feet, rain, instead of snow, and a couple of recent years, no snow at all. More people living in the Adirondacks are having difficulties with flooding, damage to roofs and interior walls: more accidents on the highway due to the inches of rain that pile up within a short period of time.

The high temperatures which were unheard of in the Adirondacks are now common when we reach into the 90s. With extreme moisture and wetlands, this brings about diseases that were never part of living in the Northeast. We first learned about the deer tick in the 80s, and mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus is nothing new.

During the months of May in June of this year we have accumulated more water and warned of floods – weeks of rain switched too two weeks of temperatures in the 90s, it seems all too familiar with the sporadic year 100 years ago.  We have seen deaths due to tornados, floods, hurricanes, even a tsunami; we are changing year to year. This year alone the disastrous tornadoes in the Midwest visited the Northeast. The setting is perfect, for the perfect storm.

Back in 1916, they believed that the Gulf Stream waters had something to do with the shark attacks, but today it is all too common what happened during 1916, although not a specific date or dates but shark attacks continue from year-to-year from the Atlantic, around the world – more humans are attacked by sharks, bitten by tics, floating away from their homes, and picking up what they can save after the storm.

A spring with heavy rains and a winter with more rain than snow is becoming a natural phenomenon in the northeast.

Land saturated by water and the wetness of the grasslands is the breeding grounds for mosquitoes and tics – more seasonal allergies are diagnosed now at the age of 40 than ever before.

The recreation areas of the Northeast during the winter have fallen dependent on snowmaking. Those lakes that support ice fishing seldom see a frozen lake and children who would go to the lakes to ice skate – a thing of the past. Ski season has lost, in some areas – at least three months a season.

In the fall every year we hear the farmers complain about a poor crop because of high heat and blooms on the tree before it is time.  The prices rise and the fruit spoils quickly.

Climate change due to global warming is evident.  No one will forget a few winters past in the city of brotherly love, when they received 107 inches of snow and those of us in the Adirondacks received 4 to 5 inches of snow, completely opposite the norm. The Northeast once a winter wonderland is now a place with flood warnings, wet springs and extremely hot summers.

One more thing I would like to bring up concerns factories that dominated the Northeast during the industrial revolution; these factories are either torn down or abandoned yet the soil is filled with toxins. The Northeast is one such area known for big industrial plants yet the ground was never cleaned and deaths from cancer are at the highest in the state of New York, and those diagnosed with multiple sclerosis are included in a cluster, but one of the largest clusters in the whole world.  It is not a freak thing that 10 people on a few city blocks are diagnosed with MS. It is not a freak thing that the highest cancer rates are in the same area. What does bother me is the soil that seeps into the earth and continues to drain into the water supply etc. and disease continues to grow.

A new company wanted to relocate in a city that is dying because of the Industrial Revolution which picked up and left, once they tested the soil there was no way they would move into the city. We heard about this once and never again.  People wonder why we live in Saratoga Springs New York where there were no industrial plants nearby, only tourists and natural springs.

Why do these large companies keep their land empty and filled with toxic chemicals? The first Knolls atomic power Lab was located in the middle of a city block and what is left of this building still stands and so does all the chemicals in the ground, your next-door neighbor.

What can we do to help? It is of dire importance that industry cleanup after their act. Protect where you live and report anything unusual. The list goes on but I feel it was important to let you know about the subjects discussed here, and perhaps it would be the beginning of helping those who live in areas still covered with toxic chemicals. Perhaps, people will be aware of the dangers along the shoreline. And yes winter the way it was will never be the same.

This is only a small sample of issues I carry around yet I have much more on my mind and I have kept up to date with reasoning and have learned a great deal about global warming. I thank each and every one of you for working so hard to protect the world for future generations.