Climate change

I was recently scoffed at for suggesting that the weather in the Midwest US at the beginning of the school year (late August) is now hotter than it was 50 years ago. This came during a group conversation at a picnic in the recent hot weather. I casually indicated that, “Well, it was cooler back then.” The derision followed. These comments were misplaced and coming from ignorance, and perhaps obstinacy; and I called it out.

This fact is indisputable and can be supported by weather data. You only need to ask Google whether spring and fall temperatures have increased during the last 50 years in a specific locale. But alas! We live in an age when facts are often disputed as if they were something fabricated out of thin air. We are often asked not to believe what we see, but to listen to what I’m telling you.

Let’s consider some of the anecdotal evidence, especially for us doubting Thomases, that spring now arrives 2-4 weeks earlier and fall comes 2-4 weeks later. Consequently, the early days of the school year are now during the “height” of summar and hotter than they used to be.

1. Wheat harvest 50 years ago used to always be on or about July 4. I remember many July 4^th’s that meant baling straw before going to the evening festivities. Now wheat harvest begins sometimes in early June, almost a full month sooner.
2. Blackberries in the woods and pastures used to ripen barely in time for pie bakers to bake pies for the local church picnic, which took place every year on the last Sunday of July. I saw ripe blackberries in the woods this past weekend. This is the usual occurrence now to have these berries ripen at least 3 weeks earlier than they did 50 years ago. Because of this memory associated with the church picnic, it is easy to mark the progress of the climate change and its impact on so many plant species.
3. As small children, my siblings and I were told about running barefoot outside, “We can only go outside barefooted if there isn’t an “r” in the month’s name.” I suppose this was a way to divert our attention from wanting to go outside barefooted to trying to figure out which months’ names contained an “r” and which did not. It usually worked, as I recall. So, we waited until May’s arrival and were disappointed when the calendar turned to September. Now 50 years later, this little device has little use for parents of small children because April and September are almost always adequately warm for running barefoot, and days in March and certainly October are still warm enough for this fun summertime activity.

These are only a few of the anecdotal evidence that our climate has gotten warmer; and to deny the temperature data and/or the evidence from our day-to-day (and year-to-year) lives is an exercise in ignorance or obstinacy, or both.