Chapter 27: Solving World Problems

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"You know, MYKA your description of Iceland makes me want to go there soon.   But your description of Greenland sounds worrisome.  It reminds me of locations in our own country where the sea level has risen to a dangerous level.   Already, people have had to relocate from Newtok, Alaska.   That tiny village was losing as much as one hundred feet a year, gobbling up the land where they hunted and picked berries.   Way back in 1996, the Yupik people decided that they should move their village nine miles away to higher grounds.   People tried to remain as long as possible, but in 2017, it was time to accept that they would soon be underwater.   Their land eroded because it sat on the permafrost, which began melting, causing rapid erosion. Sea ice disappeared and the ocean temperature increased and Alaska warmed up at rate three times faster than the rest of the United States.   When he was in office, President Obama referred to the rising waters of Newtok and many other native Alaskan villages, by saying, 'It's our wakeup call.'  It is a shameful thing to not fund our citizens when they must be rescued from flood waters."

"You are so right StLF.  Katrina didn't teach us much. Even Sandy left many citizens without the funds to rebuild, due to politics."

"And, then in 2017, we witnessed Hurricane Harvey and the Texas destruction.  The Weather Channel warned people to drive away and to go towards the northwest for at least one hundred miles in advance of the storm to keep safe, taking important papers and family treasures and necessities like medicine.  The meteorologists warned that the flooding would be horrific.  They pointed out that vehicles would be ruined by being submerged.   That leaving at the last minute, in the dark, in downpours, would be unnecessarily foolish, and risking lives.   And, remember what happened in the Carolinas in 2018?  The people who were rescued as the waters rose long after the winds died down?  And the loss of livestock was really played down.   The cleanup of drowned animals and the runoff of tons of animal excrement on agricultural lands is rife with dangerous conditions for human survivors.  And, this is a super big problem to contend with right in your home state of Florida."


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