Eight tornadoes blew through Virginia on April 28, leaving 145 families homeless and 200 injured. The Washington Post reported that cost estimates could top more than $21 million. See a moving video gallery of the tornado here
The storm, despite the fact that it was confined to a few neighborhoods, put the city at a standstill. The most severe tornado ran along a 10 mile path that reached a quarter mile wide, demolishing houses, stacking cars on top of another and literally stripping the roof off a shopping center. Families were denied entrance to their homes as the rain damaged what was left of their belongings. This was a sudden and astonishing tragedy that, though it took no lives, will take considerable effort to recover from.
One of the tornadoes, in Suffolk, was rated "Severe" intensity. There have only been 9 other tornadoes of this intensity in this region since 1966, 42 years. 2008 has already set early tornado season records. 232 tornadoes were reported in the US in February, beating a previous record set in 1972 at 83.
Tragedies like this force us to ask ourselves what could have been done to prevent the damages this stormed caused and are we prepared to deal with future extreme weather events? These are difficult questions to consider, but we may have to consider them more if global warming continues unabated. A recent study by the NASA Goddard Institute shows that our area can expect stronger wind events because of a warming climate. "In the warmer climate simulation there is a small class of the most extreme storms with both strong updrafts and strong horizontal winds at higher levels that occur more often, and thus the model suggests that the most violent severe storms and tornadoes may become more common with warming."
It's impossible to link a single storm to climate change, but what scientists seem to be saying is that you can make a pretty accurate prediction that Virginians are going to see more severe weather in the next 50 years than we have in the last 50 years. Despite the fact that we can't connect the specific events on April 28 to climate change, it fits nicely with the strange, severe weather we've seen in the past year: wildfires in Virginia, 70 degree days in January, intense snow storms in the Midwest. The question is, considering the risk involved do we need to exacerbate the problem?
Every new coal plant gets us one step closer to catastrophic climate change. A single coal plant like the one proposed in Wise County Virginia would be a huge emitter of carbon dioxide-around 5.4 million tons of CO2 or the equivalent of adding more than 1 million cars to Virginia roadways-making it one of the biggest polluters in the state. While Governor Kaine has set a goal of reducing projected carbon dioxide increases 30% by 2025, the Wise County Power Plant would comprise almost 8% of 2005 emissions of the electricity sector (the largest sector, comprising 36% of total emissions).
Global warming did not cause the tornado that destroyed homes in Suffolk. We cannot stop tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires or other severe weather events from happening. But we can stop the man-made trend of global warming which is causing an increase in severe weather by reducing our carbon emissions. But it's going to take strong action on climate change-not just from the individuals who change their habits and lifestyles, but also from the corporations that have profited from the energy use that produces global warming pollution and from the state which needs to regulate global warming pollution.
The time is now to stop new coal plants, invest in renewable energy, and build sustainable communities.