The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!
So there are some crazy headlines dominating the news right now. This has been the case for some months - really some years, even - so it feels like what we might expect.
However, there is one thing which is making news that has been very hard to ignore. That is particularly true anytime that you open the door and step outside.
Of course, I am talking about this massive heatwave, which seems to be hitting much of North America. Yes, this has been all over the news in recent days. But it is also something which you feel, and instantly, as soon as you go outside.
Yesterday, I avoided going outside during the peak temperatures. In fact, I allowed myself a lazy day where I did not even do my daily walk of a few miles.
Still, I had to step outside a couple of times in the evening. When I got in the car at about 9:15 in the evening, the temperature reading was 93 degrees Fahrenheit.
I mean, seriously. 93 degrees at 9:15 in the evening in Hillsborough, New Jersey. Not southern Arizona, or some other desert somewhere. But in suburban New Jersey. Not sure if that's a record for that time of the evening or not, but I have to imagine it might be close. The only other time that I can specifically remember temperatures well into the nineties that late at night was during a visit to southern Arizona, right by Phoenix.
Again, it's just not normal. Or at least, that is not what we have normally experienced to this point.
Clearly, yesterday was the hottest day of the year, at least so far. But today is supposed to be worse yet. The thing that put it into perspective for a lot of people, myself included, were headlines that this region (well, Central Park in New York City, in particular) has not seen temperatures quite this hot since 1888. That was nearly 140 years ago.
Here is a bit from the CNN article by Luke Snyder, Mary Gilbert, which is linked below:
The potent heat dome reaches its peak at the beginning of the week, bringing the hottest temperatures of the year so far – the hottest in years for some cities – and putting tens of millions at risk.
Over 250 daily temperature records could be broken during the peak of the heat on Monday and Tuesday, including both record highs and record warm lows. Temperatures in some locations from Philadelphia to Boston could be the hottest in any month in over a decade. Additional records could fall Wednesday and Thursday.
Around 150 million people were under heat alerts Monday, according to the National Weather Service. It feels more like July, summer’s hottest month, than June for many locations as temperatures rise 15 to 20 degrees above normal.
Yikes!
So to say that this level of heat is unusual in this region is no exaggeration. Without trying to harp on the subject, but it sure feels like these unusual weather patterns all over the place - record hot temperatures have been experienced in recent months in places as far away as Central Asia, southwestern Europe, Iceland and Greenland, and all across North America - are starting to become the norm.
Maybe it's time to have a serious discussion about global warming/climate change, and not treat it as some backburner issue, or a Chinese hoax, or not a serious concern, or anything like that? You know, don't just take it as some crazy ramblings by scientists or political extremists, but as something that is actually happening and visible, right here and now?
I mean, the situation is a lot more complicated than merely record hot temperatures in scatter placed around the globe. People - particularly climate change skeptics - tend to fixate on that, in particular. And since I have heard so many climate change skeptics harp about how very cold days in winter prove (in their not so humble opinion) that climate change is a hoax, I have recently been trying to focus on these record hot temperatures, spread across the globe, as a reminder that maybe they should pay attention to that, and voice their cynicism on days when you cannot go outside in comfort or without breaking into a sweat, quite literally. But there are other signs, such as record droughts in some regions (the American West, parts of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia have experienced these in recent years), record flooding in other regions (the American South, Europe, and parts of Asia have experienced these issues in recent years) as well as other things, such as massive wildfires and related air quality issues. Obviously, the North American West has experienced that quite a bit in recent years, but we also seem to have that more in the eastern half of North America in recent years. Also, there have been serious, even record setting wildfires in Europe and Australia, as well. To me, that screams that we should really be paying attention.
Let's see if we're ready, and frankly mature enough, to do that.
Don't want to sound like a cynic, but my guess is that we're not. At least not collectively, as a society, in any case. Not yet.
As with so many areas, it feels to me like things will have to get worse - possibly far worse - before people finally wake up and take the problem seriously. Sincerely hope that I'm wrong about that. But that feels like where we are headed.
In any case, please take care of yourselves and try to stay cool during this extreme heatwave, and this summer more generally.
Below are two links to articles about this intense heat wave, including the one which illustrates how we in the greater New York/New Jersey metropolitan area have not experienced such an intense heat wave since all the way back in 1888:
Central Park hits temp record last seen on this date in 1888 as heat wave hits eastern US By Luke Snyder, Mary Gilbert Updated 17 hr ago
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/23/weather/heat-dome-midwest-east-coast-climate
Feels-Like Temps Up To 110 Degrees Possible published by Weather.com, June 23, 2025:
https://weather.com/forecast/regional/video/record-heat-to-impact-midwest-east-coast-this-week
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