Feb 21, 2020

On February 6th Antarctica Was Warmer Than Orlando, or Why I Support Only Sanders

Even if we elect a better-than-Trump, half-measures candidate, we're still not better off. Our grandchildren will curse us all the same.
By Thomas Neuburger / commondreams.org
On February 6th Antarctica Was Warmer Than Orlando, or Why I Support Only Sanders
We need to act in time enough to matter. (Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

The climate news out of Antarctica isn't good. As Vice News put it on February 7, "Good Morning. It's 65 Degrees in Antarctica. That's warmer than Orlando today."

Since then the news from the South Pole has gotten worse. From the World Meteorological Association on February 14 (emphasis added):

The Argentine research base, Esperanza, on the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula, set a new record temperature of 18.3°C on 6 February, beating the former record of 17.5°C on 24 March 2015, according to Argentina’s national meteorological service (SMN).

A committee for WMO’s Weather and Climate Extremes Archive will now verify whether this indeed is a new record for the Antarctic continent, which is defined as the main continental landmass.

“Everything we have seen thus far indicates a likely legitimate record but we will of course begin a formal evaluation of the record once we have full data from SMN and on the meteorological conditions surrounding the event. The record appears to be likely associated (in the short term) with what we call a regional "foehn" event over the area:  a rapid warming of air coming down a slope/mountain,” according to WMO’s Weather and Climate Extremes rapporteur, Randall Cerveny. ...

WMO is seeking to obtain the actual temperature data for a montitoring station on Seymour Island, part of a chain of islands off the Antarctic peninsula. Media reports say that researchers logged a temperature of 20.75°C. Mr Cerveny cautioned that it is premature to say that Antarctica has exceeded 20°C for the first time.

Twenty degrees Celsius (68°F) is a marker for obvious reasons, an even number that's never before been crossed. It's been crossed now. You could wear shorts and a T-shirt on a 68° day, even on Seymour Island.

Building Rome in a Day

A personal note: As part of my "day job" I interact in many venues with people at the most progressive end of the Democratic Party infrastructure, and I keep being told by some of the smartest in these groups that we need to be practical (in the real sense, not the fake "I want to slow you down" sense) in our attempt to enact policies like Medicare For All and the Green New Deal. I keep being told that you can't build Rome in a day.

And those who say that are right in a sense; these things do take time. The Republican Party didn't destroy a third of the electorate and more than half of the federal government in one or two cycles — it took decades of evil, dedicated work and endless seduction of eager neoliberal Democrats to create the mess we're in now.

And yet, at the rate things are advancing—not just on the climate front but on the "rebellion against the pathological rich" front—we just don't have a decade to work with. The climate news says that. The election of Trump says that. We may not even have five years.

Which leads me to argue back: Look, even if we elect a better-than-Trump, half-measures candidate, we're still not better off. Our grandchildren will curse us all the same.

I don't think that sinks in, even to some of the better minds among them. Perhaps seeing a building that's about to fall, but hasn't, isn't enough. Perhaps the building has to start its descent before most in position to act will take the urgency of the crisis seriously. After all, the bricks haven't fallen on their grandchildren's bodies yet.

But they soon will, all too soon for all too many. It's not enough to act. We need to act in time enough to matter. I guess that's why I support Sanders and no one else, the only one who will even try to build Rome in a day.

A slow-handed, good-hearted captain of the Titanic is still a disaster just about to happen—a person blind to what hovers in the mist, a person who cannot feel its approaching breath.

 

Thomas Neuburger

Thomas Neuburger is an essayist, poet and story writer. He has published political analysis under the pen name Gaius Publius since 2010.

 

Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.

Rate this article 
Climate Change
The Conflation Trap: How the Left & Right get Fooled into Supporting Elite Interests
Watch On Netflix
Trending Videos
Ben Shapiro’s Audience Angrily REVOLTS Against His “Left vs Right” Framing of UHC CEO Hit
20 min - Ben Shapiro tried his very best to turn his coverage of the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s hit into an attack on the left, but his audience just wasn’t buying it. In fact, they began to realize in the...
Whistleblower Exposes Health Insurers' Most Evil Scheme
13 min - A health insurance whistleblower is exposing their most appalling practice. It’s called prior authorization — and it’s part of a money-making scheme based on denying and delaying patients care...
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011)
174 min - A series of BBC films about how humans have been colonised by the machines we have built. Although we don't realise it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the...
Why I Stopped Being Anti-Woke
56 min - I discuss how and why I changed over the last decade, from being more anti-sjw (anti-woke) to realizing the dangers of falling into that trap. ▼DARKMATTER2525▼ ►MY BOOKS ...
Guerrilla Composting - How its Done!
4 min - With a humorous spirit, The Urban Farming Guys present: How to use guerrilla tactics to get several tons of free compost (BLACK GOLD) with very little effort. For several years now, this rag-tag...
Israelism (2023)
84 min - When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the brutal way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns. They join a movement of young American Jews...
Carnage (2017)
65 min - It's 2067, the UK is vegan, but older generations are suffering the guilt of their carnivorous past. Writer and Director Simon Amstell asks us to forgive them for the horrors of what they...
Trending Articles
Foundational Knowledge For Addressing Root Causes
A Quest for Meaning
Subscribe for $5/mo to Watch over 50 Patron-Exclusive Films

 

Become a Patron. Support Films For Action.

For $5 a month, you'll gain access to over 50 patron-exclusive documentaries while keeping us ad-free and financially independent

Subscribe | Explore the 50+ Patron Films

Our 6000+ video library is 99% free, ad-free, and entirely community-funded thanks to our patrons!

Sign up for our Email Newsletter