On the other hand, take earthquakes. Give me the next certain date that the Cascadia Region Subduction Zone will let loose? Oh, you don't know! Well then, I can kick that can down the road since it might not happen in my lifetime at all. Issue solved, and I can turn my attention to any number of more pleasurable topics.
I have a grandson who will be 100 years old (should he live that long) in the year 2100. He will have to render the report on "what's up" on climate change at that point in time.
Which brings me to another reason to subscribe to a national newspaper. This time I'll advocate for the New York Times. This morning I read about ocean currents and changes that appear to be underway: "In the Atlantic Ocean, Subtle Shifts Hint at Dramatic Dangers."
FYI, Benjamin Franklin was the first person to name the Gulf Current.
I won't bore you with the science, but the "consequences" of sea rise, hurricanes, drought, heat and even bitter cold in some areas of the globe should give emergency managers pause to think about the future. Nothing is absolutely certain of course, so we can postpone any action until we are absolutely positive that something is happening. It is like waiting for the tsunami wave. Yes, there it is! It's real, we should do something now! Oops, too late!
My last thought on the whole matter is that science is becoming much more important to us as a profession and, in fact, as individuals and family units. We need to be paying attention to what science is telling us and perhaps hedge our bets a bit more than we have to date.
