Monday, June 20, 2022

How to cope?

News blues

Covid schmovid
The pandemic moved into our lives, caused havoc ... and now we’ve adjusted. 
Sure, people, lots of ‘em, are still becoming infected, but hardly anyone bats an eye at Covid news anymore. 
An infected person is expected to “get over it” and, in America, that’s the name of the game for most things. (Well, except for Donald Trump-related things. Those just seem to go on foreverrrr!)
Now the glittery object attracting the American attention is the heat wave.
No, of course this heat wave is not in any way connected with the change in our planetary climate due to over-reliance on fossil fuels, plastics, pharmaceutical over-use, etc. 
Heavens, no! 
This heat wave is a standalone phenomenon. Ask any Republican politician – and many Democratic politicians, too. After all, nothing is connected to anything on this planet. 
Nah, climate change is all made up by the “radical left media”. 
That hundreds of homeless people died in recent extreme heat has to do with them not “pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.” Why should hardworking Americans fork out dough to care for the homeless?
Bah humbug!

America has no plan to deal with climate change - despite statistics indicating that excessive heat causes more weather-related deaths in the U.S. than hurricanes, flooding and tornadoes combined with the homeless the most vulnerable >> (Why does the richest country in the world have homeless?)

And the heat wave ain’t over yet. A second wave of stifling heat could break over 100 records as heat dome shifts eastward. The persistent heat dome which imposed oppressively high temperatures on the northern Plains and Midwest over the weekend will begin to shift further eastward this week, ending a short reprieve that many states in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic have had in recent days.
Read more >> 
The cost of staying cool in the sweltering heat and humidity that’s hitting large parts of the U.S. also presents high energy costs. "For low-income families, this is catastrophic." >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The heat dome that’s killing Americans across the northern Plains and Midwest and moving east didn’t affect “my” portion of the country. The San Francisco Bay Area’s weather has been truly wonderful: warm, breezy, hospitable.
Having experienced consecutive days of 111 F weather last year, however, I can attest to the physical distress caused by excessive heat. This, despite living on my houseboat where I could leap into the river from the decks when the temperature overcame my fragile humanity. 
Without shelter or the ability to cool, hot weather is a death sentence.
I fear what future weather will do to living creatures of this planet.

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