Change is coming

I've mentioned before that we're having extremely unusual weather this year in the San Francisco Bay Area.  At that point we'd had two heat waves, which was already unusual, but before spring ended we'd already had a total of five (two minor and three major).  In a normal year we'll have about three, all in the summer.  And it just gets better:

More than 800 wildfires were set by a storm that unleashed nearly 8,000 lightning strikes across Northern California over the weekend.

The storm was unusual not only because it generated so many lightning bolts with little or no rain over a large geographical area, but also because it struck so early in the season and moved in from the Pacific Ocean. Such storms usually don't arrive until late July or August and typically form southeast of California.

"You're looking at a pattern that's climatologically rare. We typically don't see this happen at this time of summer," said John Juskie, a science officer with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. "To see 8,000, that's way up there on the scale."

The storm struck as California was experiencing one of its driest years on record. Earlier this month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought and directed agencies to speed up water deliveries to drought-stricken areas.

So 8000 lightning strikes from a thunderstorm which was just that—a storm of thunder and lightning with practically no rain—coming out of season, in a state stricken with drought, in a year that's seen more than a year's worth of heat waves before summer even arrived.  We're being told to stay indoors now since much of Northern California is blanketed by the haze from the fires; even at midday and with no clouds today, the sky was a dirty yellow, and if you opened a window you could smell the smoke from 50 miles away.  I stayed inside all day, but my eyes are stinging now anyway.  Really, can the plague of locusts be far behind?

We're by no means the only ones experiencing unusual weather, of course, nor are we getting the worst of it.  Yet these are the issues that Americans feel should be the top priorities for the federal government, in order:

27% Job creation and economic growth
24% The war in Iraq
18% Energy and the cost of gas
8% Health care
6% Terrorism
5% Illegal immigration
4% The environment and global warming
1% The mortgage and housing situation

In other words, more Americans are terrified that some shifty Mexican immigrant is going to steal their cushy tomato-picking job than are concerned that THE ENTIRE PLANET IS ABOUT TO SPIRAL INTO AN IRREVERSIBLE AND CATASTROPHIC CYCLE OF WARMING that will make Soylent Green look like an attractive alternative.  To say that public alarm about global warming lags the scope of the danger would be the understatement of a lifetime; it's as though we're standing in the last corner of a room that's otherwise entirely ablaze, and we're just now noticing there's a little smoke in the air.  But hey, once our hair catches fire we might grab a glass of water and try to put it out, so there's still some hope, right?

It's not really fair to blame people for their lack of awareness on this issue, just as it's not fair to blame them for their ignorance of US crimes around the world—because we live in a society that's carefully structured to produce apathetic consumers, not engaged and well-informed citizens.  But fairness doesn't matter one whit; like ignorance of the law, ignorance of the science is no excuse, and the forces we've set in motion are utterly indifferent to our indifference.  If we fail to stop this, no matter what our excuses might be, we're all going to share the consequences.

Comments

[angryman@24:10]

In other words, more Americans are terrified that some shifty Mexican immigrant is going to steal their cushy tomato-picking job...

Naah. What they're terrified of is that the shifty Mexican immigrant will impact the job creation engine (item 1 on your list) and place them into positions of greater uncertainty and risk.

People are feeling precarious, but putting on a brave face -- we as American's don't want to appear snivelly, but under that bravado, we're shaking like jello.

[angryman@24:10]

But fairness doesn't matter one whit; like ignorance of the law, ignorance of the science is no excuse, and the forces we've set in motion are utterly indifferent to our indifference. If we fail to stop this, no matter what our excuses might be, we're all going to share the consequences.

1. Consequences? Look at the credit burden that most Americans have -- we plan to die before paying it off.

2. Ignorance of science? Science is in conflict with the political economy. We are bombarded to buy in the present, live in the present. See point 1 above.

3. I'm not going to help the overclass retain their wealth and segregation. In death and disaster we will be united. They may hold it off a while longer, but without me, the underclass to unclog their toilets, they'll join me soon enough. They being too good to touch a plunger themselves.

Want my participation so that I can help put out the fire? Change the rules and stop waging class warfare against me -- because right now I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.

[John Caruso]

What they're terrified of is that the shifty Mexican immigrant will impact the job creation engine (item 1 on your list) and place them into positions of greater uncertainty and risk.

Actually I was giving them the benefit of the doubt by casting it in economic terms, since I think much of the anti-immigrant sentiment is just good old-fashioned xenophobia.

Science is in conflict with the political economy.

Yep, and like I said, the facts underlying the science don't give a damn about political economy. Nature bats last, and this time we're the baseball.

In death and disaster we will be united. They may hold it off a while longer, but without me, the underclass to unclog their toilets, they'll join me soon enough.

I'm with you on this to an extent, but nonetheless it comes under the heading of cutting off your nose to spite your own face. And while it's true that "we're all going to share the consequences", it won't be equally; oodles of money will definitely allow some people to stay above the fray for much longer than they otherwise could, if only by moving themselves to wherever it's still the most livable. But if the worst comes to pass and we really are beset with widespread famine, drought, water shortages, killer storms, resource wars, and other horrors, it won't be too much of a comfort to be at the highest point on the dung heap. And at that point if you want to organize an assault on Larry Ellison's Siberian beachfront compound, count me in.

[angryman@24:10]

Actually I was giving them the benefit of the doubt by casting it in economic terms, since I think much of the anti-immigrant sentiment is just good old-fashioned xenophobia.

Although there's some xenophobia in the US, I don't think it's that prevalent (in my observations). Most of the fear tends to be economics driven, and particularly driven by 1) the dog-eat-dog, everyone for themselves mentality (also known as focus on individuality at the expense of supporting social structures), 2) the fear that their personal consumption and comfort will be impacted by the underclass interfering in property rights and property acquisition, and 3) general income volatility related to 1).

I think these three factors also extend to the relationship between the middle class and whatever passes for the lower classes in the US.

[Thomas Daulton]

like ignorance of the law, ignorance of the science is no excuse, and the forces we've set in motion are utterly indifferent to our indifference.

You're channeling "The Cold Equations"; seems like nobody remembers that old sci-fi story anymore. Ironic that they crop up when heat death threatens human life on Earth. ( here or here )

I think Capitalism is partly to blame for that ignorance, too. Capitalism [American-style, anyway] teaches us that if only everybody would reach for their slice of pie as hard as they can, pushing and shoving everyone else out of the way, then the pie will somehow magically multiply and everyone will have enough. There won't be any losers! No downside! For people who really believe that, it's only a small step to convince themselves that the principle "Entropy Increases" is false.

[John Caruso]

Thomas: Great catch—now I'm kicking myself for not titling the posting "The Warm Equations". Ah well, maybe next time....