As of Thursday morning, over 112,000 Virginians were still
left without power to celebrate the 4th of July holiday due to last
weekend’s harsh storms. Of those 112,000 without power, 84,995 are Appalachian
Power customers, 27,129 are Dominion Virginia Power customers, and hundreds are
electric cooperative customers.[1]
Overall, the storms have been implicated in the deaths of 12
in Virginia.
The storms have also left many Virginians and their elected
officials with a great many more questions than answers. One of those questions
is this: how will Virginia deal with more intense storms as a result of a
warming planet?[2]
Last weekend’s storms were the strongest that I can remember
and if scientists are correct, this is just the beginning of an indefinite
storm trend.[3]
Amazingly though, some Virginia politicians don’t want to
acknowledge global warming as a phenomenon in and of itself or wish to at least
deny the man-made aspect of global warming.[4]
As long as this is the case, Virginia will fail to step up
and meet the challenges that have continually confronted Virginia and will
continue to do so in the future.
When Virginia finally gets around to confronting reality,
there are a number of directions that the commonwealth can go in to adapt to
and hopefully mitigate any further warming trends.[5]
While the issue of global warming is, as its name suggests, global in nature,
Virginia has to do its part to protect its inhabitants and contribute to the
overall goal of mitigation.
We cannot keep playing politics with a stick of dynamite. The
effects of inaction are real, as demonstrated by the reported 12 deaths in the
state that resulted from the storms that hit Virginia. If there is any
integrity left among this group of Virginia politicians, I hope it can be
harnessed for the good of our state!
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