Want To Preview Our Region's Future? Go To Arkansas
Monroe, New York, and other spots in adjacent Rockland and Sullivan County, will have weather just like this small town in Arkansas does in the not too distant future.
Above: Scenic downtown Ola, Arkansas. A visit there today can give you an idea of what our region’s weather will be like tomorrow.
I'm under the weather today, so here's a short post about our not-too-distant future.
It's doubtful that most of you have been to Ola, Arkansas. Just under a thousand people live there. The nearest big city is Little Rock, an hour and a half to the West of Ola and home to the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library and Museum.
Our former president's policies have not aged well (see the North American Free Trade Agreement, for example, which accelerated the process of shipping American jobs overseas but also gave us avocados), but make sure to take a trip to Little Rock to see it.
Presidential Libraries are a reasonably recent phenomenon. Do you know where the first one was built?
Right near most of you reading this: The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York, in 1941. To this day, Roosevelt is the only president to have built and utilized his own presidential library while still in office as president.
But that's the 20th Century. Let's look into later this Century.
According to the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science, Monroe, New York's climate will be similar to that in Ola, Arkansas, by 2080.
Our Summers will be almost twelve degrees warmer than they are right now, just like in Ola today, and our Winters are expected to be just over eleven degrees warmer and nearly 20% wetter.
If you live in Nanuet, Rockland County, or Monticello, Sullivan County, you'll find Ola, Arkansas, your closest climate analog as well.
So, if you live around the Hudson Valley, a trip South to Ola will give you a nice preview of what life will be like here within the next half-century.
But you don't have to wait that long to experience the extreme heat.
As I write this, 135 million people are under a heat advisory across the continental United States, which will continue throughout the weekend.
It's essential that we not downplay what's happening here.
Last year, 2023, was the hottest year ever reliably measured on this planet. 2024 is just a little behind.
It's nice that our local towns have Climate Smart Task Forces and Conservation Advisory Committees. I mean that sincerely. These committees are excellent resources, and I encourage you to participate in your town or village if there is one. Here’s an example of a well-functioning Climate Advisory Committee from this week’s Town of Chester Board meeting.
Despite what this schmuck and bully has said, the Town of Chester has provided a great example of how a Climate Advisory Committee can work, and if we’re being blunt, Chester is probably the most functional of all of our local governments in Southern Orange County. (Village of Woodbury is a close second. Everyone else is tied for dead last.)
However, climate change must also be a central issue in all decisions rendered by our local planning boards, zoning boards of appeals, and town and village boards.
Climate Change isn't just a thing to be discussed on the side in committees anymore. All discussions should begin and end with climate change as it involves our local elected officials.
Why Am I Telling You This?
You might wonder what you should say during public comment if you want to attend more Town Board meetings / Village Board meetings.
There's a straightforward question you can ask each of the board members:
Do you think climate change is a clear and present danger to residents of (insert your town's name here)?
You might get some bullshit responses. You might get no answer at all. But most public meetings these days are recorded, and your elected official's response to this question, or lack thereof, does get documented and recorded.
And if you're thinking, "OK, but who am I to ask these people anything?" I'll remind you that climate change is a clear and present danger to you and your family right now. The best thing that can be done to help slow down our climate emergency is land preservation.
All your local municipalities have the power to do that.
There's another benefit, too, if you decide to attend these meetings and speak up.
In Southern Orange County, we've seen Monroe Town Supervisor Tony Cardone, and unelected de facto Mayors Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein in South Blooming Grove, pack the meetings with people to spread their bullshit talking points for them.
We may even see this play out in Woodbury soon, too. (Be on the lookout for former Woodbury police officer, Mr. Cliff Weeks, at an upcoming meeting to pollute the community with more disinformation!)
People like Westerveld (the schmuck I mentioned) and Weeks are bad-faith actors. The only way to counter them is for you to be there and to speak up.
I can warn you about these people all I want, but it’s not going to matter if they go around unchecked at public meetings since you know The Chronicle and The Photo-News won’t fact check them.
So why you?
Because, like I keep saying, Nobody's coming to save you.
Not the F.B.I., not the D.E.C., and clearly not the local police because, as we've seen in Woodbury, there's a double standard in terms of how the laws are being enforced.
The only person with the power to fix all of this is you. And yes, that includes climate change.
We CAN fix this.
And you can fix it by attending these meetings and asking questions like the one I suggested in today's post.
P.S. If you're waiting for an email or phone call back, I will contact you as soon as I feel better.
P.P.S. Why don't I go to too many of these meetings? Because my job is to report on the news. Your job is to make it.
Don’t count on me to change things around here. You have to count on yourself.