On climactic change, (this is purely anecdotal), and perhaps the worm is turning

[nadinbrzezinski]

After I wrote the story for the paper, I shared the 226 or so photos I took at the fire line today... (ok about 200, the other 20 or so were of other places in the grand tour, like shelters). Anyhow, a lady who is from Imperial County (on the desert side of the mountains) was telling me of the really weird weather they are having. Things like oh flash floods and winds, in the desert, at this time of year.

So we started talking about climate change, and I mentioned that Mexico, with a pretty right wing president. accepts this as a reality. The reason... it became undeniable that something odd was going on about fifteen years ago. Now it is becoming undeniable in the US.

She started asking questions, and filled her on as best as I could... remarkably, she said, that after so many years of thinking this was made up, this odd weather was making her rethink this. Yes, educated her on the difference between weather and trends, and the problem with a climactic increase of 1 degree Fahrenheit in the atmosphere and that much more energy, and why storms seem more extreme and alive.

But yup. fires, floods and storms are really making people take a second look. This is purely anecdotal, but makes me wonder if this is one person, or more? Time, as they say, will tell.

[Speck Tater]

1. I've seen this too.

Some former deniers now giving the subject a serious second look. The times they are a changing, and it's harder and harder for people to deny it.

[neverforget]

2. But when it snows, the usual deniers will say "See! It's snowing therefore there is no climate

change."

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. I explained why a snow storm may be more intense actually

and she understood it.

[handmade34]

4. sadness is

my group of cohorts in the early 70's were aware that we needed to act... oh, what we could have done (and/or prevented) if people had acted then...

“Here is a statistic that does matter: Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin's wisdom not biblical; it's counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans—most American Christians—are simply wrong, as if 75 percent of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up.”

― Bill McKibbenhttp://www.billmckibben.com/eaarth/factsandfigures.html

“In fact, corporations are the infants of our society - they know very little except how to grow (though they're very good at that), and they howl when you set limits. Socializing them is the work of politics. It's about time we took it up again.”
― Bill McKibben, The Bill McKibben Reader: Pieces from an Active Life

“TV, and the culture it anchors, masks and drowns out the subtle and vital information contact with the real world once provided. There are lessons, enormous lessons, lessons that may be crucial to the planet's persistence as a green and diverse place and also to the happiness of it's inhabitants-that nature teaches and TV can't.”
― Bill McKibben, The Age of Missing Information

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. I hear ya

[zappaman]

6. "climactic change"?

Wtf is that?
And wildfires in California....in summer...after a dry winter.
When you "educated her on the difference between weather and trends", did you explain that wildfires in California...in summer...after a dry winter is not unusual.

In any event, and I am series as a heart attack here, thank you for educating all of us here on DU daily.

[FirstLight]

7. hre in the high country

many of us longtime locals are very good at reading the 'signs' of an impending winter that looks prolific... while we have noticed the animals are looking for food sources earlier, i wonder if they are storing for more drought...many of us are thinking and commenting that 'all bets are off' because the normal indicators we notice have been screwy for a couple years now and more so every passing month

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Like people did fifteen years ago in Mexico

yup

[luv_mykatz]

8. Great quotes, handmade34

I loves me some Bill McKibben.

[handmade34]

10. he should be required reading

[laundry_queen]

11. This year was a really weird year for weather where I am

I'm in the Canadian prairies. We had a really warm winter with almost no snow (the year before was a record snowfall year). Then a cool, dry spring. Then as soon as summer hit, it was constant high humidity (really rare here) and hot temps, with numerous flash flood-type rains every few days with severe thunderstorms and lots of tornado warnings. The storms aren't too unusual, although it was definitely an active year, but it was the amount of rain with them. It was unreal. The city I live had areas that had never flooded before that were flooding every 2-3 days. We have storm retention ponds in the subdivision I live in and the ponds rose by 15 feet and nearly spilled their banks several times. And again...the humidity was really horrible. I have never seen it be that humid here for that long - and I've lived here off and on (and when I didn't live here I spent summers here) for 35 years. We actually had heat alerts here for several days in a row several different times. Usually it's 1 day every five years or so.

During the winter we were told that we had an 'El Nino' -like pattern going, but this summer was far too humid and rainy for it to be like El Nino. It is almost....tropical.

Again, anecdotal, but people are really talking a lot about this where I am. I'm not the only one who noticed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. This is what is changing the conversation

problem is, I hope we are not late.