Red Sky At Morning

Over the last few months our province has had a bunch of very unusual weather. 

Earlier in the summer we got trapped in a heat dome for a few days. Temperatures soared to 40° Celcius. It was too hot to just go outdoors. We had all the doors and windows closed, which is a bit counter intuitive, but when it’s that warm outside it’s easier to try to trap the cool air in. We had fans going almost all day, and I filled the bathtub with a few centimetres of cold water and let the kids come and go as they pleased throughout the day. It was nothing to joke about, though. There were a lot of deaths associated with the unexpectedly high heat, including a family member of a friend. 

More recently, the aurora borealis was visible twice over a fortnight from Vancouver, far further south than it comes usually. We didn’t see it ourselves, but apparently it was pretty cool to see. 

But then, most recently we got hit with a huge wet weather front from Hawaii, dubbed the Pinapple Express. The first sign that something unusual was happening was videos of an honest to goodness tornado showing up just south of where we live!! Last week, it poured rain for a solid three days, causing widespread flooding and mudslides, damaging roads and highways, and effectively cutting Vancouver off from the rest of Canada by road and rail for a while. 

Thankfully, where we’re located, we had very little disruption at all, without even any noticeable flooding. But there were parts of British Columbia that fared much worse, in particular, the town of Merritt, where all 7,000 residents were evacuated, and as of writing this post, some seven days later, they are still not able to return to whatever is left standing. 

It is not hyperbole to say that we have caused global climate change on a scale that has never been seen before. But I want to be very clear who I mean by “we”. Humanity has polluted the planet, over-fished the oceans, burned millions of acres of forest, created mountains of garbage that will be around longer than us, buried nuclear waste, and much, much more. But, reader, there is little chance that you or I did any of this. I don’t think my blog has that wide a reach. A tiny percent of humanity is responsible for this, scarificing all our futures for their present financial and political gain. They are the ones that need to enact real changes. Instead, they point their finger at you and I and tut-tut about straws or plastic packaging.

We are swiftly reaching a point of no return, a tipping point of cascading catastrophes that will decimate the planet. The changes the vast majority of the population can make are tiny. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it, of course, but even if every person on the planet stopped using straws tomorrow, it wouldn’t be enough. 

Think of that when the next election comes up. Don’t ask what they can do for you, ask what they intend to do for the future, for the entire planet. Unfortunately, only those at the top have any power to force those mega corporations to make real change, but us here at the bottom can influence who sits in those top seats. 

Choose wisely.