Ma nishtana hashana hazeh mikol hashanim?
Why is this year different from all other years? - An homage to Passover
Happy Passover and Happy Earth Day.
When you get to a certain age, every year is different from the year before. Significant changes can even happen overnight.
Things greater than my nocturia have changed though and denial thereof is all the more disturbing. It’s more than disturbing, it's fucking outrageous.
2023 was the hottest year on record PERIOD Canada was on fire, Spain was on fire and the freaking Parthenon in Greece was closed due to the intense heat. The most extensive and drastic coral bleaching Earth has ever seen is expected to wreak havoc across our oceans in the next few weeks.
Earth's climate is always changing, we've heard that before. The FACT is, it doesn't change all that quickly, certainly not in any human's lifetime. Anyone as old as me has lived through significant climate change, even if they're too stubborn or Fox-whipped to admit it.
The last ice age began about 120,000 years ago and ended 11,500 years ago. That's an inconvenient truth for evangelicals trying to convince each other that Earth began just 6,000 years ago.
Earth's climate has been pretty stable for about the last 11,500 years, all the way through biblical times and right up to about 120 years ago, which uncoincidentally aligns with the industrial age and the rise of the horseless carriage (automobiles).
One of the more disingenuous arguments is that the pollution spewing from factory chimneys and automobile exhausts was much worse back in 1900, which is deceptively true.
The FACT is that while we've made significant progress reducing individual emissions, there were only a fraction of the sources of those emissions back then.
In 1900 there were only 8,000 cars registered in America and about a billion and a half people on the planet. Today there's about 290 MILLION cars registered in the U.S. and about EIGHT BILLION people on Earth.
Emissions can't possibly be reduced enough to save the planet.
Homes are sinking into what used to be Alaska's permafrost. Greenland, once under a sheet of ice is actually becoming green. The Maldives are sinking into the ocean. What is it these people don't understand and whose message about a climate hoax are they promulgating?
As recently as the year 2000, former VP, Mike Pence took out an ad in an Indiana newspaper ridiculing the media and the connection between smoking and cancer.
Would you be surprised to find out that one of Pence's big donor's is big tobacco? Don't be. And don't be surprised to find out that Joe Manchin's family makes millions of dollars selling scrap coal. Now you know why Manchin was against the climate portion of the Build Back Better legislation.
Like they say on TV, follow the money. What does anyone have to gain running around like Chicken Little, warning of the Earth’s demise? We’re just one rung above the nutjobs downtown with a sandwich board and a hand held megaphone.
ExxonMobil, on the other hand, has everything to gain just by paying lying liars to convince the convincible that it’s all a hoax, all the while raking in record profits and driving up inflation.
So yeah, last year was different and this one promises more of the same. More rain, more high winds, more erratic weather, more tornadoes and an early hurricane season.
There will be snow come winter, even some freakish, unprecedented storms. That's called weather and increasingly extreme weather is the exact definition of climate change and the direct result of a polluted atmosphere and warming oceans.
In one of the universe’s profound ironies, ExxonMobil, arguably one the main sources of greenhouse gases and the atmospheric conditions that trap them is now engaged in an international battle for drilling rights under the polar ice cap, something that would not be possible if their climate hoax propaganda was anything other than pure poppycock.
I made my annual drive from Denver, Colorado to Chicago, Illinois about a week early this year (April 15). When I got out of the car to pump some gas in North Platte, Nebraska, I was greeted by a blast of hot air, which was a rude surprise, even though the display on my dashboard read 87 degrees.
After using the restroom (Love's Travel Stops have the cleanest on the road) I grabbed a t-shirt to replace the long-sleeve shirt I was wearing. At the cash register, I asked the clerk if it was normally that hot in Nebraska in mid-April.
Dude, he said, welcome to Hell.
We’re screwed. People around here loved the 70 degree weather in February. It did feel nice. When I said this it’s bad to have this kind of weather in February and I asked what if we experience a 40 or 50 degree difference in July or August? A few people got my point and a few said, “We’ll just turn the AC lower”.
I’m concerned.
Sameach Pesach
All sad but true. Thanks for Chicago board of Tirade.