The United States Natural Disasters Map

The United States Natural Disasters Map 

For those of you who know me well or who have read my posts for the past 10 years on this blog, you know that I'm very concerned by climate changes, global warming, pollution and natural disasters. 

I have explicitly and repeatedly expressed my opinions, fears and doubts on these subjects, countless times, as their ramifications are dangerous and disastrous for the health and safety of all beings, the environment and the whole planet overall. 

Like many of you, I have kids, and I'm worried, even scared, for their future, as these four types of events (climate changes, global warming, pollution and natural disasters) have increasingly occurred, more recurrently and more violently, over the last 15-20 years. 

Of course, sceptics and other anti-climate-change, as well as anti-global-warming people, will probably tell me that there is nothing to fear and that all of these are just a bunch of lies and nonsense. 

Well, whatever you believe, these four types of events are real and they are happening, even faster than what the scientists' computers and algorithms ever predicted. The situation has become quite critical and alarming. 

Yet, despite the distressful warning stated in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report (read it here), about the rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of our society, that would be required to limit global warming to 1.5ºC, these changes are not ready to be made (and probably won't be made) by the leaders, politicians, economists, financial institutions, leading companies and lobbyists of the major developed countries, as it is not and would not be profitable, and might prove financially, economically and demographically impossible. 

Basically, they are leaving the problems as they are, rather than finding solutions, hoping maybe that things will take care of themselves on their own, with time, and surely thinking alike that wars, genocides, famines, epidemics, drugs and poverty have always been good things that helped (and still do today) regulating the population growth and thus the demographic part of the problem. Scary to think like this, but it is a sad reality, unfortunately (anybody thinking about Thanos right now?)... 

Therefore, and consequently, and instead of making the changes for the greater good of mankind and all life on earth, they will continue to do nothing, to be in total denial and to procrastinate, even if (or maybe, because) they know it is already too late and that we have already reached the point of no return, when/where it is no longer reversible unless drastic changes are made now, today, not in 2030 or 2050. But maybe doing nothing will serve their ambitions, as it won't be the law of the fittest or the smartest, but the law of the richest, the ones with the privileges of power and money like it has been described in many books and movies. Yesterday and today's fiction will become tomorrow's reality. 

And today's reality is quite scary has it is. Wars, genocides, famines, epidemics, drugs and poverty are even more present now than they were 50 years ago. The world is even more divided than it used to be back then. People are rioting and striking in the streets for their rights and their desire for changes. There is an increasing interest for people to think alike and vote for the extremist and nationalist parties (both side, left and right). We are living an age of communication where people communicate less and less. We have never been better connected than with nowadays technologies, yet most people feel lonelier, more desperate and miserable, lost in their own virtual world, oblivious to a reality they are trying to escape. 

We are now close to 8 billion people on earth. That's twice more than 60 years ago (we were about 4 billion back in the 50s-60s after the baby boom) and four times more than 110 years ago (we were only about 2 billion in the early 1900s). We are living on a planet that is shrinking by the day (that's a figure of speech), the victim of our over-production and over-consumption, as we are now consuming our supply of annually renewable resources in soon-to-be only half a year (currently 8 months, in fact, annually renewable resources are currently used up by August), forcing us to tap into non-annually-renewable resources a bit more each year. (have a quick at http://www.worldometers.info/ for more factual numbers).

However, this reality is catching up fast, and faster than we thought. And something has to be done in order to make these changes to save our little planet and thus save ourselves.

• Climate changes are occurring in most countries nowadays: seasons have changed and slightly shifted to earlier or later than they used to be, or even drastically decreased (and/or even disappeared in some parts of the globe) over the last 50 years, and even more rapidly over the last 15-20 years, more especially in the northern hemisphere. Winters are warmer at the poles but much colder and snowier than they used to be in other places, or are, now, insignificant in other places where they used to be more significant or longer. Spring seems to arrive earlier in some places, and later in others. Summers are hotter than they used to be, yet dryer in some parts of the globe with longer drought periods, while more humid and generating massive storms in other parts. These changes in global, national or regional climate patterns, have been even more apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and, beside being indirectly or directly related with global warming, they have largely been attributed to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels and energies (gas, oil and coal), resulting in an accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere; in turn, generating and creating new weather patterns that are less stable, and less consistent, and thus less predictable. Basically, they could be resumed as a change in the statistical properties of the climate system, caused by sudden and drastic changes of the air pressure, of the temperatures and humidity levels in the air and other intricate factors in our atmosphere, leaving us less and less chance to predict or anticipate what could happen with the weather and climate conditions in the short and long term.  

• Global warming is a fact, and has been increasing slowly over the last 50 years, and more rapidly over the last 10-15 years, with each year ending up being hotter than the previous one, more especially in the Northern atmosphere, where it seems that each year breaks new highest temperatures records to date. Temperatures are now rising earlier in the year, as early as February in some places, creating the illusion that winters are shorter and bringing warmer days than usual earlier in the season, thus destabilizing the nature, which usually ends up starting its budding and bourgeoning cycle way too early, faced with increasing risks of frost due to sudden temperature drops, as, in fact, winter is not finished yet and cold is not over yet either. Summers are getting hotter and dryer in some parts and more humid in others, these unbalanced conditions create massive super storms and typhoons as well as hail storm (all of these with direct and/or indirect relation and/or even as a consequence of global warming AND climate changes of course). You can read some very interesting articles on the subject, from Insideclimatenews.org here and from Science Magazine here and also this one from climatecentral.org here (these are just a few among so many others that have been written on the subject)  

• Pollution is a real disaster, a catastrophe for the environment, threatening our health and safety, and more importantly the future of the upcoming generations. As humans continue to pollute every day, and despite a minority fighting it, nothing is really done by most countries or governments to find concrete and efficient solutions for it. We have created and invented (and we still do today) without measuring or even anticipating the consequences and collateral damages of our creations and inventions in the long term. Although, nowadays, the trend is to go back to more natural methods and practices, to respect the environment and reverse the process to diminish the pollution of the air, ground and water, we continue to only develop alternatives to deal and handle the consequences, instead of tackling the problem at the source to eradicate it. Despite the fact that we are (and have been for decades) fully aware of the problem with plastics and other derivatives of fossil fuels and energies (gas, oil and coal), being none biodegradable, we still continue to produce it and in even greater quantities. And , although, we constantly see more and more campaigns and actions asking (begging I should say) us to refrain our use of plastics, to reduce the quantity and the use of single-use plastics and consequently diminish our production (or "beyond overproduction" should I say) of plastics; we continue to produce more and more plastics as they are cheaper to produce than to recycle. We are basically shooting a bullet in our own foot, while we know it hurts, but are trying to remain oblivious to the pain and suffering it causes us and ignore the loss of blood. That's crazy! Let's take fruit for example, like bananas, they are now available in supermarkets, individually wrapped up in plastic film in turn put into a plastic bag or box, isn't it insane? 

Producing more plastics and other none-biodegradable products is insane, more especially, when knowing that, (at the end of the day), we only have 3 solutions!!! Solutions that are harmful to our planet and far from being ideal as they generate health hazards and issues, but so far, they are the only solutions we have to get rid of our trash, rejects and other none-biodegradable stuff:  

• Burn them, but incinerate them pollutes the air (consequently the atmosphere)
• Bury them, but it pollutes the ground and the groundwater
• Sink them, but it pollutes the ocean, deltas and rivers and other bodies of water      

If you don't believe me, then you should read attentively the United Nations official reports then, at  https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/reports.shtml 

And the problem is that the causes and consequences of our everyday actions, as well as our bad decisions and habits (due to differences of cultures, traditions, beliefs and educations), which result in over-production and over-consumption, as well as over-construction, land reclaiming and destruction of the environment (forests, mines, agriculture, etc...), having direct and indirect consequences and ramifications generating Climate Changes (change in the air and atmosphere), Global Warming (fall and rise of the temperatures) and the increasing Pollution (due to a constant demographic growth requiring more production and more consumption of water, food, goods and energies), seem to have a direct effect, or at the least, a certain influence on Natural Disasters. 

Although Natural Disasters have always existed and will continue to exist long after the disappearance of the humans (and probably most life on earth), it seems that climate changes, global warming and pollution have something to do (directly and/or indirectly) with the strength (not to say "violence") and the rather increasing number and occurrence of these natural events (around the globe) over the last 15-20 years. 

Natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, mega-storms, typhoons, hail-storms, tornados, heavy rainstorms, electric storms, droughts, wildfires, volcanos, eruptions, and other geological processes, causing great damage and/or loss of life, have been occurring more often, more rapidly and more suddenly, and especially more dramatically, over the last 15-20 years, even happening in places where they previously very rarely happened or even where they never existed before. 

The climate changes and shifts of seasons, the rise of temperatures, the melting of the polar ice caps,  the rise of the water, the variation of salinity of the sea and oceans, the variations and slight deviations in the course of the warm and cold currents in the oceans, the natural and forced erosion due to human's reclaimed lands (land reclamation) and other constructions, the use of chemicals like silver iodide, potassium iodide and/or dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) or even liquid propane during cloud seeding, and many other factors induced by human's activities (actions and habits), seem to have had a direct impact on the Natural Disasters, their strength and their frequency.      

They are many websites and apps that you can check to get info and knowledge about Natural Disasters around the planet (globally, nationally and/or regionally). Yet to take a concrete example, I like to bring your attention to a particular website called www.ADT.com (a website specialized in security and safety accessories, systems and solutions for personal home, as well as commercial and businesses buildings).   

Phebe Opoku, Communications Specialist at www.ADT.com, contacted me via email (apparently) after reading one of my posts (from Jan 2011), where I was mentioning "natural disasters" and listing some websites and organisations links to take invite my readers to take some actions against climate change, global warming and encourage to converting agriculture especially viticulture to organic and biodynamic farming to help save our planets (read this post here), and thought I’d be interested in spreading awareness by including the following link to the main page or one of the posts on my blog:  

https://www.adt.com/natural-disasters    

At first, I found it a bit strange, but then I understood what was her intention, when I read her explanation saying "Our team at ADT has analyzed sixty­-five years of FEMA data (see FEMA website here for more details) and released an interactive disaster risk map that calculates the risk natural threats pose, across the United States. One can simply input a ZIP code and view the area’s exposure to natural hazards." 

Intrigued by her request, I clicked on the link she sent me (https://www.adt.com/natural-disasters) to better understand what this natural disaster map was, and once I browsed around this map for a little while, I found it so interesting that I obliged her request and it led me to write this post. 

United States Natural Disasters Map courtesy of www.adt.com 

Click on the link, then click anywhere on the map (the area in red being the ones with the most disasters) and you will quickly understand that this is an interactive map of the United States of America, allowing you to click on specific areas (understand that each state has been divided into numerous areas) to show the FEMA total count of natural disasters which occurred in each specific area since 1964.  

I personally found this map really interesting and eye-opening in terms of the data recorded and for the info, it provides for each area. It might not be of interest for people outside the US (which is understandable), but it seems to be particularly helpful for the people living in the US, more specifically the areas in red, which have been the most badly touched by natural disasters as per FEMA data recorded since 1964. 

Click on the link above and have a look, you'll see, it might give info about the disasters you had no clue happened in the area you're living in. 

That's all folks for today! Stay tuned for more post coming soon. 

And remember, do something every day to save the planet, even the most little gesture is significant. 

Step into the Green! Drink more Biodynamic, Biologique and Organic wines and spirits (and food) from sustainable culture and respect the environment! Support the right causes for the Planet and all the people suffering all around the globe! 

Also follow projects and products from the Fair Trade, an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability. 

Also support 1% for the Planet, an alliance of businesses that donate at least 1% of their annual revenues to environmental organizations worldwide. "Commerce Equitable" or "Fair Trade" is evidently and more than ever a needed movement connecting producers and customers, to be aware of others and their cultural and traditional products based on high quality, natural components and craftsmanship. 

Cheers! Santé!

LeDomduVin (a.k.a. Dominique Noel)