Daily temperature records will tumble as sizzling early season heat from a summerlike heat dome sends thermometers skyrocketing into the triple digits in parts of California and the West this week.
The official start of summer is just a few weeks away, but it will feel like July in much of the West as temperatures climb 20 degrees or more above average, the highest temperatures of the year so far for many locations.
Excessive heat warnings are in effect for more than 17 million people in California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona this week. The warnings are the most extreme form of heat alert issued by the National Weather Service and are used when widespread, dangerous heat is expected.
The soaring temperatures are being caused by a heat dome, a large area of high pressure that parks over an area, traps air and heats it with abundant sunshine for days or weeks. The resulting heat becomes more intense the longer a heat dome lasts.
I’m sure that many will be thrown away, and the cynical take sounds logical at face value. But that’s not what the data shows:
https://www.environmentalvoter.org/results
Postage costs were spread around among volunteers. Some people have more time than money, some have more money than time. Personally, I paid for about 250 postcard stamps, and got a roll of 100 from the group. Others got more or less rolls of stamps.
Cynicism among folks who care about climate change is understandable, and widespread, which is a big motivation for sending postcards targeting climate voters. The data shows that we tend to vote less than the average voter. If we really want the political changes that we say we do, then we need to show it and take action.
It’s entirely possible that it is too late to do anything about climate change. But if we act as if it’s true then we make it a certainty, where now it is only a probability.
Climate change realists (people that have common sense) voting less than the average population is not something I expected. If anyone believes that climate change is real and isn’t voting Democrat, you’re the problem.
Climate change has become reality because of apathy. Not evil actors. They’ve always been the minority relying on inaction.