Last month was the second hottest March on record for the globe, and it could be a sign that 2023 will become one of the warmest years we've ever seen.
I think up until last year, I knew global warming was coming and was going to be bad but I thought it wouldn’t start to hit until 2030, maybe 2050. But it’s here already and will gladly get worse year after year.
Last summer was ridiculous – the greenery disappeared, the leaves on trees were turning yellow and crispy brown, maybe a week or two away from combustion– yet this is just the start and I don’t live anywhere near the worst affected places.
Talking to your point in a comment below, my city is not infrastructurally resilient enough for even moderate climate changes. If summers get slightly hotter, I doubt the fire service has the capacity to stop the city going up in flames. Even if they had the resources, there’s not enough water because decades of neoliberalism have let the water companies take dividends without fixing leaky pipes.
One third of the water that leaves the reservoir leaks, meaning water reserves can get dangerously low in mid summer and no amount of ‘have a shorter shower’ will solve the problem. It’s usually only mildly inconvenient for people with lawns, when hosepipes are banned, but it could become a choice between providing drinking water and putting out fires.
Of course, there’s other sources of water for fire trucks, but that will only accelerate the destruction of habitats. So then it’s a choice of safe drinking water, putting out fires, and living in a barren wasteland.
I wonder how many other people are (i) in denial, (ii) accepting but think that we still have time, or (iii) accepting but refuse to see socialism as an answer. All three guarantee catastrophe.
I’m generally optimistic about geopolitics at the moment but if the climate now changes at a faster than expected rate… well, it’s just not worth thinking about, really.
I think up until last year, I knew global warming was coming and was going to be bad but I thought it wouldn’t start to hit until 2030, maybe 2050. But it’s here already and will gladly get worse year after year.
Last summer was ridiculous – the greenery disappeared, the leaves on trees were turning yellow and crispy brown, maybe a week or two away from combustion– yet this is just the start and I don’t live anywhere near the worst affected places.
Talking to your point in a comment below, my city is not infrastructurally resilient enough for even moderate climate changes. If summers get slightly hotter, I doubt the fire service has the capacity to stop the city going up in flames. Even if they had the resources, there’s not enough water because decades of neoliberalism have let the water companies take dividends without fixing leaky pipes.
One third of the water that leaves the reservoir leaks, meaning water reserves can get dangerously low in mid summer and no amount of ‘have a shorter shower’ will solve the problem. It’s usually only mildly inconvenient for people with lawns, when hosepipes are banned, but it could become a choice between providing drinking water and putting out fires.
Of course, there’s other sources of water for fire trucks, but that will only accelerate the destruction of habitats. So then it’s a choice of safe drinking water, putting out fires, and living in a barren wasteland.
I wonder how many other people are (i) in denial, (ii) accepting but think that we still have time, or (iii) accepting but refuse to see socialism as an answer. All three guarantee catastrophe.
I’m generally optimistic about geopolitics at the moment but if the climate now changes at a faster than expected rate… well, it’s just not worth thinking about, really.