It’s a little bit cooler than yesterday, as there was a good hard rain last night, but it’s still damned hot. Other places have it a lot worse. California with the wild fires everywhere, of course.
Now, some might say that wildfires, like mudslides, earthquakes, and riots, are a regular occurrence of nature in California and so this is nothing unusual. But large numbers of people dying from the heat in Canada is not usual. This summer, with it’s scary sounding temperatures all around the globe, seems sort of apocalyptic.
Some might point out that there is a difference between weather and climate, and between real time and geological time, but the temperature, worldwide, this summer, has blurred those differences a bit.
But, summer will be over in another month or two. And then? Well, just as every summer gets hotter and hotter (no longer cyclic – that’s the scary part), so nasty hurricane seasons are coming closer and closer together. Last year’s was horrific. If this one tops that, we’re in serious trouble. The hurricanes will be followed by floods. The ice of Antarctica, Greenland, and the entire arctic ocean is melting, which will make the ocean level rise, which will make the land flood even more.
However, I am not among the doomsayers who say it’s all over, disastrous global warming has become irreversible and there’s nothing we can do about it, we’re all going to die. I’m now watching a show on nuclear fusion, and saw an article today about a Chinese idea to make solar panels double as rain powered kinetic energy devices. Some sharp scientists may soon figure out a way to filter the carbon from the air (more trees would help, and we know how to do that), and we will avert the end of times.
It’s a hell of a gamble, we’re taking it way too close to the edge and that’s a bad idea, but I’m still fairly confident the human race will prevail. But, brace yourselves.
