Cold Snap

Last year was a pretty bad year for hurricanes, as was the year before that.  And, last summer was extremely, at time painfully, hot.  After the summer came wildfire season, and a huge swathe of California was deforested.  That takes more trees out of the equation, which  means more carbon in the air that doesn’t get absorbed, which means the Earth gets hotter.
I don’t understand all the science behind it, but it also means the Earth gets colder in the winter.  Our entire planet is having mood swings.  This is not good.  This is really super bad.  Scientists have warned us that we have 12 years to reverse this pattern or the results will be catastrophic, perhaps rendering the planet incapable of supporting human life.
There’s a foreshadowing of that happening in the American Midwest right now.  Coldest winter ever, I’ve heard, and I can remember some damned cold winters growing up there.  Dangerous to go outside, is what they’re saying.

So, the president of the United States responds to this with perhaps his stupidest tweet yet: “In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!”

Credit where it’s due, for a change there were no misspellings or egregious grammatical errors.  But, to deny global warming, which could cause the extermination of the human race, is incredibly stupid.  Yet, he’s done it again and again.  This is on a par with his ‘rake up the leaves’ comment, and throwing paper towels to the people of Puerto Rico.  He’s just not taking the situation seriously.
Now, some of his supporters might say “Lighten up, he’s just making a joke,” but they are as stupid as he is and their opinions should not be taken seriously.

Others may insist that global warming – a better phrase would be human caused climate change, but it’s too long and people wouldn’t understand it – is not a real thing, or is part of the natural cycle (which doesn’t mean it can’t kill us, or that we shouldn’t take measures against it)  They are against the solid consensus of climate scientists, so I’d say we can safely disregard their opinions, too.  In fact, if we want to survive as a species, we have to disregard their opinions.

In any event, it probably means there will be serious flooding in the spring.  Brace yourselves.