8.2.09

A Taste of the Future

The most deadly firestorm in Australian history just occurred in the southern state of Victoria.

"...a prolonged drought and the weekend’s searing temperatures made recent conditions particularly bad [for fires]. More than 700 houses were destroyed and two townships were almost completely leveled in the disaster."

The cause of the fire(s) themselves aren't really important, in the long view of things. The conditions that led to them are. Global warming doesn't just drive the temperature up - it increases the extremes. Weather that was going to be dry and hot becomes drier and hotter, and it's a thin margin in absolute terms between uncomfortable and dangerous.

There won't be a global firestorm that makes us fall to our knees and repent our industrial ways, that's not the way it works. But the world is changing - and in 50 years, we might all know someone whose life was destroyed by fire.

It's time to start acting.

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