The Weather is Changing ... But Can We?
The weather for early to mid-September in New Brunswick has been record setting. It has been HOT. Did you catch some of the headlines?
Record temperatures set in New Brunswick on Labour Day - CBC News Posted: Sep 08, 2015
"Temperatures soared above 30 C on Monday setting records in parts of the province."
New Brunswick shattered 15 heat records on Thursday - CBC News Posted: Sep 18, 2015
"Record-breaking highs were reached throughout the province on Sept. 17 Summer isn't going out without a fight. More than a dozen New Brunswick communities set heat records on Thursday, including some that haven't been broken in more than 100 years."
Six New Brunswick Weather Records Toppled - Daily Gleaner Sept. 18 20 15
"... temperatures have been up 8 to 10 degrees above normal for this time of year."
To put little New Brunswick's record setting temperature change in perspective, here is this story:
As 2015 smashes temperature records, it's hotter than you think - CCR Aug. 24 2015
http://www.climatecodered.org/2015/08/as-2015-smashes-temperature-records-its.html
" ... With the July data in, the US Government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that July was the hottest month ... on record since 1880, and the first seven months of the year was the hottest January-July on record..."
Not a single news story spoke of any risk, danger or consequences directly connected to record hot weather. Not one. Each story, and on television weather as well, promoted smiles about all the "good" weather.
Why does mainstream media promote "hot" as the "good". How is setting records as a good thing ... as if it is a race, or earning an Olympic medal. Are higher temperatures "good"?
Awareness is so fundamental to implementing change ... and especially when it comes to climate change ... a responsibility we all share. To encourage that awareness I offered this comment on the Brunswick News website story about the "great record weather" of the past two weeks ...
"I am still mystified why breaking temperature records is considered "good" news ... instead of being reported as a danger or a warning sign the climate is changing. Are we really like the frog in the flask on the burner with the temperature gradually increasing and we do not notice until it is too late? Has all the science and solutions been for nothing? Does having plus-30 degrees Celsius for the weeks in mid-September really a "good" sign?"
Sure enough, my comment was challenged:
V. W. said ... "I am mystified as to why it proves anything. As far as I can see ... it is just an anomaly".
P.B. said ... "I agree (with V. W.). Every time we have a record breaking temperature for a day ... we start shouting that it is global warming!"
So I responded with a link to a NASA climate change report (above) which states, "The year 2014 ranks as Earth’s warmest since 1880, according to two separate analyses by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists."
Now the conversation gets really weird.
P. B. comes back with this comment, "Did NASA take into account the temperature patterns of 400 years ago rather than just go back to 2000? Nope they don't know. Just saying ..."
What is missing for P. B.? Why the blind spot? The NASA story clearly states 2014 is the Earth's warmest since 1880.
But then this post appeared:
M. S. : "I guess it is just easy to label and go with popular rhetoric. No one, I repeat NO ONE, is denying that the climate is changing. Therefore, the term applies to no one, and is used solely for belittling. However, many many people will dispute exactly how, and to what severity the climate is "changing", and what is "causing" it. There are an equal amount of published studies, by an equal amount of reputable sources that point in completely different directions. There are motivators on both sides of the equation. A good rule of thumb is to dismiss all the chicken little sensationalist headlines."
Oh my! On the same day M. S. slaps me with the "chicken little sky is falling" label ... this story appeared in The New Yorker: What Exxon Knew About Climate Change
"The documents they have compiled and the interviews they have conducted with retired employees and officials show that, as early as 1977, Exxon (now ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest oil companies) knew that its main product would heat up the planet disastrously. This did not prevent the company from then spending decades helping to organize the campaigns of disinformation and denial that have slowed—perhaps fatally—the planet’s response to global warming."
M. S. , P. B., and V. W. ... you have been duped. Because of that ... any conversation toward progress or change on use of fossil fuels comes to a choking burning halt.
And that is the point. In a world where everything is connected ... what is it going to take for us to understand the 10 degree warmer than normal September in little New Brunswick was not a good thing?
The weather for early to mid-September in New Brunswick has been record setting. It has been HOT. Did you catch some of the headlines?
Record temperatures set in New Brunswick on Labour Day - CBC News Posted: Sep 08, 2015
"Temperatures soared above 30 C on Monday setting records in parts of the province."
New Brunswick shattered 15 heat records on Thursday - CBC News Posted: Sep 18, 2015
"Record-breaking highs were reached throughout the province on Sept. 17 Summer isn't going out without a fight. More than a dozen New Brunswick communities set heat records on Thursday, including some that haven't been broken in more than 100 years."
Six New Brunswick Weather Records Toppled - Daily Gleaner Sept. 18 20 15
"... temperatures have been up 8 to 10 degrees above normal for this time of year."
To put little New Brunswick's record setting temperature change in perspective, here is this story:
As 2015 smashes temperature records, it's hotter than you think - CCR Aug. 24 2015
http://www.climatecodered.org/2015/08/as-2015-smashes-temperature-records-its.html
" ... With the July data in, the US Government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that July was the hottest month ... on record since 1880, and the first seven months of the year was the hottest January-July on record..."
Not a single news story spoke of any risk, danger or consequences directly connected to record hot weather. Not one. Each story, and on television weather as well, promoted smiles about all the "good" weather.
Why does mainstream media promote "hot" as the "good". How is setting records as a good thing ... as if it is a race, or earning an Olympic medal. Are higher temperatures "good"?
Awareness is so fundamental to implementing change ... and especially when it comes to climate change ... a responsibility we all share. To encourage that awareness I offered this comment on the Brunswick News website story about the "great record weather" of the past two weeks ...
"I am still mystified why breaking temperature records is considered "good" news ... instead of being reported as a danger or a warning sign the climate is changing. Are we really like the frog in the flask on the burner with the temperature gradually increasing and we do not notice until it is too late? Has all the science and solutions been for nothing? Does having plus-30 degrees Celsius for the weeks in mid-September really a "good" sign?"
Sure enough, my comment was challenged:
V. W. said ... "I am mystified as to why it proves anything. As far as I can see ... it is just an anomaly".
P.B. said ... "I agree (with V. W.). Every time we have a record breaking temperature for a day ... we start shouting that it is global warming!"
So I responded with a link to a NASA climate change report (above) which states, "The year 2014 ranks as Earth’s warmest since 1880, according to two separate analyses by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists."
Now the conversation gets really weird.
P. B. comes back with this comment, "Did NASA take into account the temperature patterns of 400 years ago rather than just go back to 2000? Nope they don't know. Just saying ..."
What is missing for P. B.? Why the blind spot? The NASA story clearly states 2014 is the Earth's warmest since 1880.
But then this post appeared:
M. S. : "I guess it is just easy to label and go with popular rhetoric. No one, I repeat NO ONE, is denying that the climate is changing. Therefore, the term applies to no one, and is used solely for belittling. However, many many people will dispute exactly how, and to what severity the climate is "changing", and what is "causing" it. There are an equal amount of published studies, by an equal amount of reputable sources that point in completely different directions. There are motivators on both sides of the equation. A good rule of thumb is to dismiss all the chicken little sensationalist headlines."
Oh my! On the same day M. S. slaps me with the "chicken little sky is falling" label ... this story appeared in The New Yorker: What Exxon Knew About Climate Change
"The documents they have compiled and the interviews they have conducted with retired employees and officials show that, as early as 1977, Exxon (now ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest oil companies) knew that its main product would heat up the planet disastrously. This did not prevent the company from then spending decades helping to organize the campaigns of disinformation and denial that have slowed—perhaps fatally—the planet’s response to global warming."
M. S. , P. B., and V. W. ... you have been duped. Because of that ... any conversation toward progress or change on use of fossil fuels comes to a choking burning halt.
And that is the point. In a world where everything is connected ... what is it going to take for us to understand the 10 degree warmer than normal September in little New Brunswick was not a good thing?
