I have a new rule: any day that’s warmer than the historic average is a day to take climate action. In Northern Maine today, the temperature is a nippy 31 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s still cold, but the historic average is a frigid 14.4 degrees. I have keen memories of -10 temperatures from my teenage years over two decades ago. Back then, your breath smoked, dragon-like, as it froze on the air. Snow banks towered over my head. Underfoot, the snow squeaked. Everything from cars to trees to garages creaked in the cold, still and strangely fragile.
People crack jokes to cover their uneasiness about this year’s scant, soft snow. “I’m not complaining,” is the common catch-phrase. But it catches you out, that phrase … because we are complaining. Locals are grumbling about the impassable snowmobiling trails of ice, slush, and mud. Dismayed winter tourists are cancelling their vacation bookings. The environmentalists’ moaning over the plight of the moose calves (80% of Maine’s moose died this year from blood-sucking tick infestations) is a presage to the hunters’ bad luck next season. It takes frigid winter temperatures to stop those ticks. Foresters (both loggers and eco-friendly landowners) are anxious about emerald ash borer and other invasive insects that kill trees.
This is the reality of the climate crisis. The systems are strained to the breaking point.
Track the weather in your hometown. Try to remember what it was like growing up there. If you’re older than 30, chances are the contrast will be stark and worrisome. This isn’t big fish stories or your grandfather’s claim of walking to school uphill both ways. Scientific data confirms that year after year, the climate is heating up. The signs are everywhere, if only humans would look.
So what will you do … today?
Here are some suggestions:
Join a nonviolent campaign for climate action. (Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, Fossil Free – there are many to choose from.)
Shift to a more vegetarian diet.
Pledge not to fly (air travel releases a lot of carbon emissions).
Move your money out of fossil fuel financing corporate banks.
Don’t like these ideas? Do something else. There’s no need to argue over action when there’s so much to do. Rather than splitting hairs over this tactic or that one, I recommend taking your need to gripe out on a politician or a fossil fuel executive. Tell them there’s an emergency. Ask them to act immediately. Invite them to keep taking action every single day that the temperature is above the historic average. (And maybe even on the days that aren’t.) Because the crisis is here.