It’s a good thing global warming is a myth, but somebody forgot to tell the hyacinths and lilies in my backyard.February in Pennsylvania is not when you expect to see spring flowers.Now I’m fully aware that unseasonal warm snaps and cold spells aren’t an indication of the global climate; they’re far too localized.One thing I’ve learned in my several decades of life is that heat takes time to transfer.If you’ve ever had to wait for a pan of water to boil when you’re hungry, you know that to be true.On cold morning’s my coffee’s ice coffee before I finish the mug, but it does take time for that transition to happen as the cup empties.With something so inconceivably large as the atmosphere, it takes time.As our hemispheres take turns pointing at the sun and warming up, the air tries to reach equilibrium and so the weather goes.
Scientists are now talking about, once we get the deniers out of the White House, what long-term remediation plans we have to make.We’ve already set in motion extreme weather events.We’ve had decades of warning, but those who control the money just can’t bear to let any of it go.It’s a safer bet to wreck the planet.You can just cash in your insurance money and buy a new one.That’s the way it works, isn’t it?So I’m standing outside in my shirtsleeves in February staring at April flowers who think winter’s over already.I don’t know what to say to them.
You can’t drive a car without a license, nor can you practice law or medicine.To be a world leader you don’t even have to be literate.I often imagine what the future survivors will say.They’ll likely be there, since people have a way of getting by.They may wonder if we knew this was coming.Of course, the internet won’t be up and running then, and who knows what’ll happen to electronic information when there’s no power left to keep the servers going.In any case, my perhaps futile answer to their imagined question is yes.We did see this coming.Some of tried every legitimate tool in the box called “democracy” (you’ll need a dictionary for that one) to introduce sanity into the discussion, but bluster wins over hard thinking every time.I cup my hands around the tender, if resilient leaves.They’re only doing as nature directs.If only our species could pay such attention to what the planet is saying.