Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past week by now you’ve probably seen Mike Bettes from The Weather Channel choke up on camera while reporting on the devastation from the Joplin, MO tornado. The images online and on TV have been just horrific. Currently 116 are dead and they are still pulling bodies and people from the wreckage. Minneapolis, MN also had a tornado on the same day that caused widespread damage and loss of life. This brings the current death toll for the tornado season in the US to 481, and it’s only May.
When you think about tornadoes in North America the infamous “tornado alley” of the Great Plains comes to mind. Storm chasers, aka crazy adrenaline rush addicts drive around in these regions of the country looking for tornadoes. It’s become such a popular thing to do there are now vacation packages where you can ride around in a van with storm chasers and watch tornadoes from a hopefully safe distance. It’s spawned a TV “reality” show, and a big Hollywood production movie with lots of CGI effects (The best movie tornado ever is still, in my opinion, the tornado in The Wizard of Oz ). Most of the tornadoes this spring that have caused so much death and destruction have been in the south. There are no wide stretches of open prairie to watch storms there, and a large percentage of people in the south live in homes that don’t have basements. Even with the early warning systems in place to alert of incoming severe weather, people couldn’t get to adequate shelter fast enough.
The deadly storms have many people asking why does it seem that the weather is getting more violent with every passing year? The answer is obvious to those of us who pay attention: Global warming and climate change. Despite the solid science that supports global warming, there are plenty of prominent Americans with TV shows, newspaper columns and politicians more than willing to say that this is simply not the truth. One of them is Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri, who referred to Global Warming as “international junk science.” That’s good Christian American speak for “evil commie godless foreigners trying to destroy the American way of life.” Blaine Luetkemeyer only has his constituents’ best interests in mind, which is why when you check his list of campaign contributions you find one of the biggest corporate donators is Diamond Pet Foods. What does Diamond Pet Foods have to do with global warming? It’s all speculative connect the dots of course.
Congressman Luetkemeyer’s district is in the northeast corner of Missouri, and Joplin is in the opposite corner in the southwest. This doesn’t stop the great state of Missouri from having a state-wide anti global warming opinion. Just 140 miles north of Joplin is Lee’s Summit, a suburb of Kansas City. Lee’s Summit became known nationally after the documentary Jesus Camp hit the big screen. The film focuses on youth pastor Becky Fischer and three pre-teen children who go to Jesus Camp and other church sponsored programs, training the children of Missouri to be Good Christian warriors and fight evil. Evil like Islam, abortion, homosexuality and international junk science. One scene looks at a home schooling lesson for one of the children with his mother, where they discuss global warming.
Missouri is a church going bible reading Christ loving God fearing state. One of my college professors years ago used to live there and she told us about how every job listing in her local paper started with “Good Christian _________ wanted.” Being Jewish, she admitted this made her feel uncomfortable.
Will this be a wake up call for the Good Christian people of Missouri, or the rest of the Good Christian people of the southern United States? Will they consider the possibility that global warming is real now that they’ve almost beat the national record for most deaths caused by tornadoes in a single year, and its only May? Not as long as Good Christian ministers preach from the pulpit that it’s a lie and large polluting corporations finance politicians willing to go to Washington and naysay global warming on their behalf.
Maybe when Hell freezes over … oh wait …
