US winter storm

Massive winter storms have pushed the nationwide death toll in the US past 60, with at least 28 killed in the city of Buffalo, New York, alone. Conditions were so bad that almost every firetruck in the city was stranded in the snow on Saturday, according to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who is also a Buffalo native. Between the current storm and one about a month ago, Buffalo received nearly 90 inches of snow — almost equivalent to the annual average of 96 inches. The result has been a city at a standstill, with driving bans being enforced in the few areas where roads are still usable, and reports of looting coming from several commercial areas. Even normally warm southern states saw sub-zero temperatures, and over 1.7 million Americans were without power over the weekend. Millions more were also left stranded at airports, as over 15,000 flights were cancelled over the Christmas weekend, including about 70% of flights on Southwest Airlines — the country’s largest domestic carrier.

But despite the suffering caused by the storm, there are still several powerful politicians that refuse to do anything about climate change. In fact, the US is probably the only country in the world where climate change denial is still a legitimate policy position. To clarify, we are not talking about opposition to spending on climate change mitigation because of fiscally conservative ideological positions or other economic reasoning, but outright denying that human beings have contributed to climate change. Former president Donald Trump is perhaps the most notable of these.

While some feel the US is reaping what it has sowed, as the greatest historical carbon emitter by far, we would rather focus on the fact that even the US has struggled with this extreme climate event. All nations need to come together to do more to address climate change, rather than focusing on who is more or less responsible, because if the US can’t handle extreme events, Pakistan and similarly poor countries do not stand a chance.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2022.

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