Records are going to be broken over and over, especially next summer when the currently ongoing El Niño is going to “hit” us. Our planet is not happy with what we’ve done all these decades and we’re going to pay for it :-(
Records are going to be broken over and over, especially next summer when the currently ongoing El Niño is going to “hit” us. Our planet is not happy with what we’ve done all these decades and we’re going to pay for it :-(
In North American as well, at least per the hardiness zones that gardeners use:
* https://gardeningcalendar.ca/gardening/gardening-basics/hard...
* https://landscapetrades.com/canadas-new-plant-hardiness-zone...
Similarly zones used in building codes:
> However, with new research based on measured temperature data from over 4000 weather stations throughout North America over the last 25 years, the IECC designated changes to the CZ map for the first time in nearly 20 years. The outcome was that about 10% of counties in the U.S. were placed in a new CZ. In nearly all cases, the shift was to a warmer (lower) CZ, reflecting a general warming of the climate in those areas. The first set of maps below show the old CZs on the left and the new ones on the right. The shaded area across the west in the image on the right highlights the "dry" sub-climates. In most cases, the shift in CZ is relatively subtle.
* https://www.jm.com/en/blog/2021/march/understanding-the-iecc...
The narrative about protecting the environment/the planet should have always been about protecting ourselves from the planet, because we have learned to do that already. A more egocentric message could have worked better for the general public.
[edited to hopefully sound less snarky]
I edited the original message trying to make that more explicit and appear less snarky, thanks for the feedback!
Of course the problem is that those feel like problems that could kill you or your kids, while climate change doesn’t. But again, that’s also connected to message formulation and correctly communicating the feeling of urgency…
Attempts to communicate these 'uncomfortable truths' and their ultimately utterly predictable outcome unfortunately have to deal with the fact that the consequences are conveniently over the horizon for pretty much everybody of voting age today. There may be some mild discomfort but unless you happen to live in regions where there are already concrete troubles today you can easily ignore the problem.
And so people do just that: they ignore the problem, because it doesn't affect them. Yet.
And by the time it does it will be too late. This is how you get into very bad situations. Democracy is ill suited to deal with this sort of challenge (though it works well for lots of other kinds of problems). As is capitalism. And yet, those are the two main building blocks most of the developed West are constructed out of. And we're not even close to wanting to let either one or both of these go to deal with climate change.
It's not as effective as air conditioning, but it's more sustainable, certainly.