As I write this note, the thermometers are screaming towards the top of the dial—in a city that functions primarily without air-conditioning—meaning most residents are quite miserable (and that our typically foggy, frigid beaches are packed with pasty white bodies).
Inevitably, whenever the heat rises to uncharacteristic triple digits, every newscaster and their brother start screaming global warming and how terrible it is that the heat is around. Twitter gets flooded with posts about how disgusting it is, and generally everyone is miserable.
Then it stops.
The temperature cools down, and life goes back to normal. That’s it…. the cycle is over… and life begins again.
Well, I have news for you ‘casters: This is not global warming.
“Global warming” just refers to the gradual overall increase in global temperatures that affect our world in entirety. It is not just a quick spike in heat over a few days. And—while I am no expert scientist—it is easy to see how global warming is just an untrue, simplistically fabricated concept anyhow.
Case in point. Whether we like it or not, our lives revolve around cycles. Winter to Spring, Summer to Fall… birth and death… happy and sad… kick and snare. It is all part of the little bubble we live in. To think that broader cycles don’t exist just because we can see them happen or comprehend how they work, is just hogwash.
We are on a cycle here people… the world is rolling to a slow boil out of an ice age from many millions of years ago. There is nothing you can do about it. Just accept it, and hurry back to your Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy fudge cone before it melts all over the carpet.
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Now don’t get it twisted here… I’m not trying to imply that conservation measures are a bad idea. Far from the truth. When it gets really hot and nasty in the Bay Area, we have “spare the air” days. Days where citizens are encouraged to use public transportation, ride bicycles, walk, or generally try to reduce their power consumption. Why? Reduction of air pollution through ground-level ozone (smog).
This is just common sense. The same reason you go change the oil in your car or weed your yard… we need to take care of our home planet. Like it or not, we all live on this large rock, so we have to do it as a team—not one of us, all of us. So buck up and go catch the bus, buddy. It’s time for you to do your part.
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Either way… this image is from an exhibition at California Academy of Sciences, discussing climate change and global warming. It’s a great exhibition from an equally great museum. You should check it out.