Today it is hot, heading for the low 30s (the mid 80s F) with humidity that makes the temperatures much more uncomfortable. Last night it was cooler and about 2 a.m. I opened several windows, tryng to fill the place with a reserve of coolness. As I write, that reserve is exhausted and I fell like rag doll.
This is the kind of weather which brings the reality of climate change to mind. Not that it is unusual for Montreal this time of year, but the prospect of lots more than "usual" has been news lately. Is this going to be the pattern for the future?
Looks like it Thomas Friedman says in The New York Times today: "You really do have to wonder whether a few years from now we’ll look back at the first decade of the 21st century — when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados plowed through cities, floods and droughts set records, populations were displaced and governments were threatened by the confluence of it all — and ask ourselves: What were we thinking? How did we not panic when the evidence was so obvious that we’d crossed some growth/climate/natural resource/population redlines all at once?"
The Earth is full, and we're living as if we had an extra planet some place where we could get energy, food and other resources, he quotes Australian "environmentalist-entrepreneur" Paul Gilding. What is coming is a "Great Disruption" when we'll have to choose between business as usual and some major changes, based on lives where enough is fine. Friedman quotes Gilding: We are heading for a crisis-driven choice,...We either allow collapse to overtake us or develop a new sustainable economic model. We will choose the latter. We may be slow, but we’re not stupid.”
Glad to hear that. But I must say that this heat decreases my intelligence considerably. Hope it doesn't have that effect on everyone.
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