…”Tell me about it, stud.” — This famous moment in the movie Grease happens when Sandy appears in front of Danny for the first time in her new, badass clothes and makeup, proving to him that she’s not just an innocent girl he can take for granted. Danny’s shocked reaction to Sandy smoking a cigarette and wearing scandalously tight pants captures the shock of another badass Sandy — the deadly storm that swept over much of the East Coast.
Okay, so while the shocking moment in Grease was a pleasant one, rather than one of terror, I was pleasantly surprised to see so many stories about how this storm correlates to climate change. That was one plot twist I certainly didn’t see coming.
Blogs, such as the recent one on Huffington Post, discuss Sandy’s implications and stress that this storm is not just a one time occurrence. Scientists predict we will see more and more of these “once in a century” storms and even the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, admits there is a huge change in weather patterns.
While it is great to hear more concern from not only bloggers, but major media outlets about climate change, it’s also disheartening. At this point, given the grim scientific predictions, it seems as though it’s almost too late to do anything about it. We’ve spent too long here in the U.S. making climate change a partisan issue (as Andrew Steer addresses in the Huff Post blog). And now the issue is yet another pawn in the election, but will anything actually be done after the election?
Climate change affects OUR environment, OUR world, OUR lives. So, it’s time to push politics aside and fix the problem. I don’t intend to be a cynic, because I do hope climate change continues to be in the conversation and I sincerely hope that politicians who claim to want to fix the issue work to do so. I just worry we are running out of time. We must continue to address the issue before the next Sandy hits.
Gina Cook 