An merchandise within the Jan. 1 Seattle Instances “New 12 months’s Morning Transient” e-newsletter started, “2023 will likely be remembered because the yr local weather change arrived …” — Uh, excuse me, however the place have you ever been? This unlucky assertion solely serves to bolster the notion within the minds of many who local weather change is one thing simply now taking place, which we must always all know by now’s removed from the reality.
Sure, 2023 did break world temperature data. However local weather scientists have been issuing warnings since at the least the Nineteen Seventies, lengthy earlier than there was a smidgen of stories media consideration. Temperatures and sea ranges have slowly however more and more risen since then. Can we ignore the tragically growing pattern of enormous catastrophic wildfires destroying entire communities and displacing lots of of 1000’s? Extra not too long ago and regionally vital, what of the acute warmth dome occasion of 2021 that blew up temperature data, devastated the marine surroundings, destroyed total crops and public roads, spawned horrible fires, and killed lots of? Is that when local weather change “arrived”?
How a lot proof do we’d like? Final yr was merely the yr that some who hadn’t been paying consideration began doing so.
Ed Knight, Camano Island