89
“Over the river and through the woods” was written in 1844 about a sleigh ride on Thanksgiving Day in New England.
A hundred years later the film “White Christmas” was made about not having snow in the same region by Christmas.
and 2044 will be snow-free decembers at the rate we're going in the midwestern u.s.
Already feeling that on the east coast.
Which is okay because kids don’t get snow days anyway, just WFH
What a fucking tragedy that is by the way. I have such fond memories of snow days stayed home playing in the snow
My potential grandchildren will never understand this comic
But Los Angeles was always 110° and miserable every summer, right?
Right?
This has to do with the terrifying shifting baseline theory. Every generation can only compare within its own lifetime. The baseline of what is considered normal can therefore slowly drift without anybody noticing. When the planet is 90% dead, people will only be whining about how much better it was a few decades previously when it was only 80% dead, oblivious that there was once a time when it was completely alive.
I think about this a lot when we're talking about animal, bird, and insect populations, because all those massive declines we're hearing about are measured from 1970 onwards. By that point industrial civilization had been chugging away for a full century, and ecosystems were already severely degraded. Then I think about how settlers clear-cut the Eastern US with just hand-powered axes and saws, and that was a hundred years before that.
In most areas we'd have to go back over 10 generations to encounter a truly healthy ecosystem. Shifting baseline is absolutely a real thing.
I know it's just anecdotal but as a person who has paid a lot of attention to the weather most of my adult life, shit's just getting weirder to me every year.
The local normal for where I am (Mb,Canada) is highs of +20c(68f) for this time of year. Tomorrow they're calling for +35(95f), 34(93f) on mon, +36 (97f) on tues.
That was virtually unheard of to get those temps in May up here 30 or 40 years ago, in fact we rarely hit those kind of temps at any point throughout the entire year, yet now it's becoming very common. I've lived the first 30 years of my life without AC but It's almost a necessity nowadays if you want to even be remotely comfortable. It is very concerning.
I live in Wisconsin, and I also grew up with AC. Now I can't imagine doing that to myself or my dog and cats.
Our lilacs bloomed this fall. Mother nature is screaming.
People do notice and talk about it, but they're not making the connection to climate change for some frustrating reason.
I work for a pet food manufacturer, and I talk to people all over the US and Canada. We're located in Wisconsin, so customers will often joke about our notorious winters. When I tell them it's not like we remember and don't even have consistent snow cover during winter months in large parts of the state, they'll reply with similar stories about how the seasons in their areas have changed. People see it, they just aren't following these thoughts to their natural conclusion.
I think it's too frightening for them to accept, which leads to paralysis and inaction. It doesn't help that deniers make this refusal to accept reality more comfortable for them.
The weather isn’t much of a concern when you’re one health complication away from bankruptcy and choosing which credit card payment you make this month.
My city in south-east France used to be covered in snow for at least 2 months per year when I was little. Now, 20 years later, there is hardly any snow anymore ; and the few times it does snow, the snow only lasts a few days, and making snowmen is nigh impossible for how slushy it is…
Oh look, MORE AWARENESS no one will ever see.
Thoughts and prayers!
this post was submitted on 10 May 2025
89 points (100.0% liked)
Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.
6530 readers
357 users here now
Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS