Hi!
Okay, so our neighbours in the Southern US were hit with some nasty weather. On the surface, to those of us who live through much colder, and much snowier on a regular basis, it didn't, at its onset, seem so terrible. A bit of cold, a bit of snow, have a litle taste, a sample, if you will, neighbours, what do you think?
But.... oh and there is a huge but...
They have absolutely zero coping tools to deal with this. It became painfully obvious within the first 12-24 hours that this was going to be much more serious than we first thought.
Without properly upgraded or winterized energy systems, things started failing pretty quickly.
As time went on and more information came to light, it became obvious that the bulk of the trouble stemmed from incompetence.
It didn't take long for the people actually responsible, who, by the way, have a history of denying science, to blame wind energy. Saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, that wind turbines simply fail in the cold. Apparently, he forgot that most people have access to google and can look up how successful wind energy can be in places like Norway, Finland, and, yes, right here in good old Canada.
They failed to mention, in that flurry of BS that 93% of their energy still comes from fossil fuels. Your oil and gas portion of keeping people warm failed too. Sooooo...
Do you have to prep the systems for cold weather? Yup
Do you need to constantly and consistently maintain and upgrade all the systems, wind or not, on a very regular basis to assure as few failures as possible? Yup.
You will still get some power outages, sometimes, no system is perfect, but nothing like what is going on in Texas.
Apparently, recommendations for upgrades and maintenance were made many times, for years, and for the most part, were ignored for budgetary and other pretty sketchy reasons. Hope it was worth it.
Now citizens who are still dealing with massive unemployment and a freakin' pandemic, are also having to deal with more loved ones dying without any good reason, destroyed homes, and, very likely, a monstrosity of an electric bill for the power they haven't received because their leaders did everything but lead.
Hell, one even thought a little jaunt to a resort in Mexico to ride out the storm was completely appropriate until he got caught. His defense? My kids made me do it.
So now, today, thankfully, the weather in most of the places hit the worst, is beginning to warm up.
Most people, once again have power. But, they have little to no water. They are running really low on food, too.
If you only glance at the cover, it's baffling how the most energy-rich state in one of the richest countries in the world was put in this kind of situation. Once you start reading the book it becomes much clearer. This was absolutely avoidable. Preventable. It didn't have to happen. It didn't have to get this bad. How do I know? Because other people, other places, other countries, do it. All, The.Time.
Social media has been on fire with people looking for advice from those who live where it's cold. How do I drive in this? What do I do if I don't have winter clothes? How do I keep my house warm without electricity or gas? How do I get rid my driveway of snow without a shovel?
It was heartwarming to see so many fellow cold-dwellers send tips and tricks to try and help them survive. Those of us who are more accustomed to life in the deep freeze have things ingrained in us from birth. If you live where it's warm all the time, how are you possibly going to know this stuff?
My heart breaks for the loved ones of those who will never again feel the warmth of the sun, my heart aches for those still living in the dark, those without water, those struggling to feed their kids. My entire body hurts when I think of all of the hours of clean-up and repair that will take you through spring.
Once the icicles melt, hold your leaders' feet to the fire. All of them. Make them explain. Make them back up their explanations with facts. Make them prove the validity of their information. Don't let them skate with,' my kids made me do it.'
Demand better. You deserve it. Don't let them put you through this again.
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May you once again feel truly warm, safe, with plenty to feed your bodies and your souls.
May those who put you in jeopardy be held accountable, tell the actual truth, regardless of their goals.
May those who believed you so insignificant, who put their own bougie comforts above your survival,
May their feet be held to the fire beyond the excuses, their only remorse, getting caught on arrival.
May you know you are worth so much more than anyone's political ambitions.
May you never again be pushed to survive these completely preventable conditions.
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