It’s strange how a slight spelling change can bring reality home. National Public Radio went to press on March 30, 2019 to describe how climate change is hurting Florida’s most vulnerable patients. Perhaps those of us who are young and healthy should put ourselves in their threadbare shoes. Are we all affected by global warming, or do the wealthier few have a way out?
Global Warming or Only a Problem for the Poor
Authority website Statista says “About 42 million adults own more than 1 million U.S. dollars of net worth each. They represent 0.8 percent of the global population. They own about 142 trillion U.S. dollars, which equals 44.8 percent of global wealth. The term net worth measures all assets, including homes.”
The rest of us are not all in impoverished parts of Africa, Asia, and South America. National Public Radio found people laboring under global warming in Florida AKA Sunshine State with motto “In God We Trust”. This is not an easy call for the rest of us living in North America. How will we cope with global warming, or worse if we fell on hard times too?
How Would We Cope if We Were Jorge?
National Public Radio posted a piece about a person named Jorge. Except that’s not his real name because he does not want to make a fuss. Jorge, a diabetic works the streets selling fruit. “When you work in the streets,” he says, “you really feel the climate change.”
There is no good news for Jorge around the corner in that regard. The 2018 National Climate Assessment says “The south eastern United States is already experiencing more and longer summer heat waves.” It adds by 2050 nearly half the days in the year in Florida will be dangerously hot.
“That’s when the combination of global warming or heat and humidity will make it feel like it is 105 degrees or more.” That’s food for thought but not for Jorge’s descendants. The wealthy would have sailed north by then leaving them behind.
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Preview Image: Small Scale Florida Fruit Market
