I went to visit some family in the Midwest this weekend, and the talk turned, as it often does with family and beer, to politics. Then it turned to climate change. What I find so fascinating, living in California, is how different the basic assumptions on some issues are, and how regional that tends to be. The things my mother considers rude in her life are pretty standard ways of communicating in the city where I live, and there are topics of conversation in each place that would never come up in the other- this weekend my aunt was talking to me about the true nature of Satan in our everyday lives, and tonight I’m sure my roommate will be telling me about ethical issues around Critical Mass and stopping city traffic with a whole bunch of bicycles.

Climate change: in California I tend to hear it taken as an assumption that it is happening and that we have to do something about it. In the Midwest I tend to hear it taken as an assumption that something may be going on but nobody is sure what it is or what would be the best way to deal with it. Whichever way you think about it, the Earth is experiencing a whole lot more flooding than it can handle- maybe this is because our climate is shifting and we won’t admit it, or maybe it’s because we have way more people than we used to and these floods are therefore more disastrous than they used to be.

Regardless of how you view the causes, here are two lead-lines from articles I read in Reuters this morning that point out the issue:

“Pakistani authorities struggled on Monday to help victims of the country's worst flooding in memory, which has so far killed more than 1,000 people and prompted sharp criticism of the government.” -- Reuters 1

“Flooding caused by unusually heavy rain near the North Korean border has cut water supplies to more than 300,000 people in northeastern China, state media said on Monday.” -- Reuters 2

Notice the descriptions: “the country’s worst flooding in memory” and “unusually heavy rain.” Now, are these just borderline hyberbole from the news media looking to make a story out of a natural occurrence? Will the next flood in Pakistan be the worst in memory? Are there 10 articles in the past year talking about unusually heavy rains in China? That I would like to know, though I don’t have those kind of numbers in front of me.

Here are 2 thoughts:

1. Climate Change is happening: It’s easy to read these articles and see that around the world the weather is getting more extreme, just like scientists have been telling us it would since the 70’s. How can we read articles like this day in and day out and still fly around on planes with our iPhones?
2. Climate Change is a myth: Nothing out of the ordinary is happening- since the beginning of civilizations, we have all thought that the end of the world is coming. How different are the predictions of scientists of floods and fires and earthquakes than those of the book of Revelation? Or any other apocalyptic text? That just means everyone thinks the end is near.

Who is right? See you in 2050 and we’ll find out.

Photo Credit: NB77