A Suggestion As We Walk Into A Scorching Summer
Last Updated on: 29th May 2025, 01:36 am
It’s getting hot — very hot — here in Florida. The heat is extreme and debilitating. I grew up here, so, to some extent, I’m used to it. However, this is not the climate of my childhood. There used to be some very hot days in the summer — very hot days — but now the summer is full of very hot days. We’ve got significantly more snowbirds — and residents in general — and we’ve got significantly hotter summers.
Actually, I should note now that it’s not even summer yet. Summer is more than three weeks away. Nonetheless, we’re getting fried, scorched. Even going from air conditioning to air conditioning, we are wrecked at midday and crash for some ice cream, a nap, a mental checkout. Because it’s just that hot.
Now, I know that science is the bad guy and talking about climate change with half the population is taboo and somehow political. (Congratulations, fossil fuel industries — your propaganda works.) I understand that if you go about this in the wrong way, you’re immediately getting into a political discussion with many people and their walls go up, if not also their swords.
However, a brief comment here and there can go a long way in opening up people’s minds. Most people don’t want a lecture, a long rundown of the stats, or a PowerPoint presentation. But if you say, “This heat is insane — so much worse than 20 or 30 years ago,” then you’ve done your job and the ball is in their court. They can either accept that, yes, it’s hotter, because we’ve made it hotter. Or they can think that it’s just a throwaway comment, but then what about when they are sweating gallons again or hear a similar line? Perhaps they can argue that you’re just talking from your gut in the moment, have recency bias, and are not making a scientifically factual statement. But you are — it’s hotter than it used to be. If they engage in a discussion with you about it, again, you don’t need to give a college lecture. Just be ready to give one or at max two solid statements that show you know what you’re talking about and make a point. “The past 10 years are the 10 hottest years on record.”
Again, you don’t want to be ready for battle. What you want to do is send a message in a simple, normal, culturally shared way. Make one impactful statement and leave it at that. If you’re really keen to make sure they don’t get upset and turn off from the message, transition quickly to a shared topic that is fun, like sports. This is how important messages are actually passed on. Most people will never look at a Nature article. And even if they look at one, they probably won’t learn anything from it or expand their views. Views are changed by culturally connected people making simple but compelling statements that catch on.
So, yes, my suggestion as we walk into a scorching hot summer is: Use opportunities to super simply pass on the message that the world is hotter than ever, and that sucks. This could also be amplified by big storms, droughts, wildfires, etc. Don’t be afraid to make the point that we’re experiencing never-seen-before natural disasters — disasters that are bigger, badder, and more costly. People won’t become Green New Deal advocates overnight, but these things will grow on them, and it will become harder and harder to ignore our crisis or even advocate for the nonsensical talking points and policies of fossil fuel companies (and their politician puppets).
Okay, one more things for those who get pulled into a heated debate. Aside from emphasizing (over and over) that the past 10 years are the 10 hottest years on record, and perhaps explaining that CO2 traps heat in the atmosphere, I recommend simply noting that 99.9% of climate scientists — thousands of scientists — have concluded that global heating is happening and is caused by humans burning stuff. “Do you really think you understand climate science better than people who spent years studying it?” Even if they contend that they do, they know deep down that they don’t.
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