America is Threatened by the Warming Planet

Four years ago Barack Obama was President Elect.  Here's a speech he gave at that time:

Notice his concluding remarks:

Once I take office you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in…. negotiations, and help lead the world towards a new era of global cooperation on climate change. Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences too serious. Stopping climate change won't be easy and it won't happen overnight, but I promise you this. When I am president, any governor who's willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House. Any company that's willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that's willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America.

Stopping climate change hasn't happened overnight, or over the last four years for that matter. The stakes are higher. The consequences more serious. Stopping climate change is now much harder. Whether as a result of Michael Bloomberg's last minute introduction of climate change onto the agenda or not, Mr. Obama has just been voted another four years in office by the U.S. electorate. Here's his 2012 acceptance speech:

Notice that at about 10:30 into his speech Mr. Obama says that:

We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.

Wanting something is one thing, but doing something about it is another. One can only hope that Barack Obama achieves more in reducing the "destructive power of a warming planet" over the next four years than he did in his first term. Whilst we wait to see what eventually transpires, here's the latest weather forecast for the north eastern United States, courtesy of the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center:

A STRENGTHENING COASTAL STORM WILL IMPACT THE NORTHEAST WITH RAIN, WIND AND SNOW TODAY/TONIGHT.

ONE OF THE BIG STORIES DURING THE SHORT RANGE WILL BE ACROSS THE NORTHEAST AS AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE STRENGTHENS AND MOVES UP THE COAST DURING THE DAY TODAY. A COLD RAIN WILL CONTINUE TO TRANSLATE NORTH ALONG THE NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC COAST AND SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND THIS MORNING AS THE LOW DEEPENS. ENOUGH COLD AIR IS ALREADY PRESENT ACROSS INLAND SECTIONS OF THE NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC AND NORTHEAST TO SUPPORT SNOW AND/OR A MIXTURE OF PRECIPITATION TYPES WHICH WILL BEGIN LATE THIS MORNING AND EARLY AFTERNOON. WINDS WILL ALSO PICK UP LATER TODAY WITH THE GREATEST IMPACTS NEAR THE LOW CENTER FROM NEW JERSEY TO CAPE COD WHERE HIGH WIND WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT ALONG WITH COASTAL FLOOD WARNINGS, WITH THE GREATEST IMPACTS DURING DURING HIGH TIDE.

Just a standard storm rather than a super storm, but something you could do without when you're still trying to clean up after Sandy, and hundreds of thousands of people are still without any electricity in New Jersey, New York and Long Island.  Here's how our straw poll of United States electricity power outage information looks at the moment:

Approximate history of electric power outages caused by Hurricane Sandy

Note that those numbers don't include around a 100,000 people on the south shore of Long Island, whose homes are so badly damaged that LIPA are unable to estimate when they might be able to restore power.