Warming waters in the Atlantic Ocean are apparently leading to a lengthening of the hurricane season, as the National Hurricane Center announces the first named storm of the season, Tropical Storm Ana, before we’ve even reached the end of May. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminitsration (NOAA) has been predicting an active Atlantic hurricane season for 2021.

As global climate change causes temperatures to rise, and the breakup of the polar ice caps leads to more sunlight being absorbed by ocean waters instead of being reflected back into the atmosphere, ocean temperatures are rising at a faster rate each year.  Hurricanes and Tropical Storms are sometimes described as “heat engines” that help to disperse that excess energy.

Because more thermal energy in the atmosphere means more fuel for the heat engines, it’s basically inevitable that as global climate change continues, tropical storms and hurricanes will continue to become more frequent and more intense. Tropical Storm Ana is conclusive proof that warnings from climate scientists are accurate.

At this point, the only solution to global climate change is a massive multi-pronged approach that would include massive worldwide tree planting campaigns to capture CO2 from the environment, a dramatic increase in the use of wind and solar energy, a dramatic reduction in the use of fossil fuels, the restoration of a “repair economy”, where home goods and appliances are repaired and kept for decades instead of being easily disposable, a reduction in global birth rates, the adoption of meat-reduced diets in developed nations like the US, and the restoration of blighted neighborhoods in the world’s urban centers to provide adequate housing associated with a dramatic decline in use of personal automobiles and increased use of public transportation options. That sounds like a lot, and it is, but the alternative is that heat-waves, freak temperature inversions and storms eventually become so intense that the world pinballs from one massive storm to another, and we all end up living in a state of perpetual recovery.