As I write this, the digital weather station that sits on my parents’ coffee table is silently blinking out some very bad news. “3.15.12. 18.2ºC PRESSURE FALLING”. It is showing us a crude drawing of rain falling from a cloud; we are waiting for the second thunderstorm of the day to roll overhead. Throw in the fact that I’m lying on the couch wearing sweats and an old t-shirt, and, bam!, you’ve got yourself essentially every early summer day that I have spent at home.
Yet this seemingly beautiful image of a lazy, warm day is in fact a sinister one: the trees have no leaves, the softly-singing birds are still in their drab plumage; the grass is brown and still dormant; the streets are covered in sand put down just days ago to provide traction on ice. This lovely mid-March morning is more like what we here in Canada tend to have in mid-May.
Today, it is virtually impossible to argue against the scientific support for global warming. A consensus has been reached, despite the vague utterances otherwise of a tiny minority (who tend to be given a soapbox by the fat pockets of polluters). We have lived long enough to see that the world is going down the path that we always hoped it would not — this gorgeous, unseasonal weather is a sign that the predictions of climatologists have begun to come true.
While it is admittedly nice to leave the windows open and enjoy a warm breeze, we should take this weather situation with a grain of salt — if not a whole salt mine. If we embrace this kind of weather at such an odd time of year, then we should be embracing severe flooding in low-lying areas, rapid changes in precipitation distribution globally, and the immense loss of biodiversity as species of all types struggle to adapt to their new climactic paradigm.
This kind of warmth should not be a rallying point. Sure, we should be able to enjoy the weather — you can take your shorts out of storage guilt-free — but we should definitely not celebrate it. It should serve as a pleasant but disturbing reminder that our planet’s climate as we know it is under severe threat from the forces of climate change. We should be impelled to act against this environmental shift — to call our politicians, stage rallies, conserve energy, wean ourselves from fossil fuels — but instead it seems like our complacency and eager embrace of any fleeting warmth will stop us.
So, please, be my guest. Lounge on a beach before the water’s warmth. Show off your summer colors early. Just remember that this is not the weather we should have this time of year. And if you can’t begrudge the weather, at least remember to turn off your lights and sit in the sun.
Gary Gerbrandt ’14 (garygerbrandt@college) admits to loving the crap out of this weather, but seriously, he should feel a bit guiltier.