This heat map from NASA for the month of July showing the spread of heat across the Western Hemisphere is impressive. In animation, it looks like a blowtorch. Having lived through it, I thought I was in a convection oven until after the sun set. And then it didn't cool off at night like it should. I read comments all the time in scientific areas that say, "This is the coolest summer you will have for the rest of your life." Places in Iran are experiencing 127 degree temperatures. I mean...it was always hot in places like, Iran, right? But it was never that hot. It's sobering to think about what's happening.
Out here in the West, access to water is becoming a privilege. I mean...golf courses are still green for the most part. But lawns everywhere are brown or just dead. There is talk of abandoning Lake Powell, which is a huge man-made reservoir. I guess there just isn't enough water to fill it anymore. It's weird watching all of this in real time. I mean...there's talk of not allowing any more building of new structures because water can't be guaranteed to go to those places. This isn't some science fiction dystopia. It's happening now.I wonder where all of this ends. And I wonder why we were so afraid of confronting the ones who made this kind of hell on Earth possible and visit upon them more consequences? Maybe it was because we are so spread out, that it's hard to monitor what's goin on two-hundred miles away even if what those people are doing directly affects our lives. Maybe we were afraid, because those people had guns and no empathy and thus would use them to kill another human as easy as it would be to abuse a dog. So we just let them be.
This week in Utah, we've got smoke from a wildfire rolling into the valley choking everyone. The sky is perpetually hazy. It was started because some person more than a hundred miles away saw a spider in some dry grass and thought it was a good idea to try and kill it with a lighter. This same person probably votes too, which is another huge problem. The world is now crowded enough that the stupidest people among us makes decisions that affect everyone. It doesn't help matters that the cleverest among us who weaponize the stupid can predict where those people live and draw political lines around them to increase their voting power.
I think 2016 was the year the world changed. Everything has gotten steadily worse year after year since then. It's like every year raises the bar on just how awful things can get. But, I could be wrong. There has to be a rock bottom to this thing, right?
I think it quietly started changing several years before that.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is, if China, Russia, and India don't make changes - and even just small changes, not the big, sweeping force it down your throat and crash your economy like Sri Lanka and some European countries - then it doesn't matter what the rest of the world does. It will have next to no effect.
Well, no... Since the USA is in the top two carbon producers, we could have a huge affect on bringing the climate back "under control," but republicans like to say "but China...," and, "but jobs...," and "but money...," so it's unlikely we will do anything about it. And no one else will because we won't.
DeleteSince we know people aren't going to conserve water, just like they wouldn't wear masks, social distance, or stop driving when gas was $5/gallon, we'll have to find ways to create more water. What we really need is a way to more effectively seed clouds to create rain in places that need it, like where wildfires are raging. With ocean levels rising, we should also look for ways to take the salt out of that water so we can use it where we need it.
ReplyDeleteBetter technology is the only way we're going to survive this mess we've created, but I doubt it will happen in time. We're passing the tipping point now.
Do not challenge the universe to rock bottom. That'll only make things worse.
ReplyDeleteIt's the money. Those that are the biggest problem have thrown money at the people who could regulate them so they won't regulate them. They'd rather eke out the profit now. It's about the now. They don't really realize that there's a future that they don't want to see.
Because it's a future they won't actually see, and they know it. It's a future their grandkids will live in, but they don't care about that. If they want to fix, let them fix it.
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