Climate Change and the “Gates of Hell”

We’ve all had the impulse to provide serious answers to rhetorical questions.  An old friend who lives in the central part of Texas, where afternoon temperatures are hovering close to 100° F, sent me the meme here and asked, “Who opened the gates of hell?”

The answer, of course, is the human civilization as a whole did, when it failed to respond to scientists’ warnings about the consequences of burning fossil fuels.

The initial hypotheses on greenhouse gas emissions were made in the 19th Century (believe it or not), and the subject began to undergo intensive study starting in the 1970s.  Now, it’s been known for 50 years that our planet is warming due to human activity, and the consequences will be dire.

In the U.S., Texans suffer the worst effects of all this, due to its grid that stands alone, unconnected to the rest of the country.  This is great for utility investors, because it’s designed to maximize profits, but it does so at the expense of the people who live in the state, who, during the hottest and coldest months, are forced to deal with outages, brownouts, and rolling blackouts.

In some cases, this situation is worse than miserable; it’s lethal. In the winter of 2021, more than 4.5 million homes and businesses were left without power, some for several days. At least 246 people were killed directly or indirectly, with some estimates as high as 702 killed as a result of the crisis.

But, hey.  The people responsible for all this are rolling in money.  Gotta take the bad with the good, right?