Day 5: How About This Weather?

On either side of me where I work sit sales people. They’re on the phone all day talking to customers and potential customers. Invariably, they do what most sales people do, talk about the weather. It’s amazing how many ways they can do it, too.

For weeks and weeks, I’ve been hearing how wonderful Nebraska’s weather has been this winter. “It’s only snowed once.” “Yeah, it’s gorgeous again today.” “We’re really getting spoiled this winter.” “You know, it’s been great really. Not your typical Nebraska winter, that’s for sure.”

It’s not just co-workers I hear making these types of comments, either. It’s seemingly everyone. I read them on Facebook. I hear them from friends, relatives, and neighbors. Hell, I even raved about the weather recently when I actually played 18 holes of golf with friends on New Year’s Eve day. I loved the hell out of the sunshine and unexpected warmth, even as I missed putt after putt. And today, the weather forecasters are calling for temperatures to reach 64 degrees by noon here in beautiful Lincoln, NE. 64 flippin’ degrees in January. Terrific, right?

Wrong. There’s a reason we’ve only had one snow. There’s a reason the temperature has consistently crept up the ladder each winter year after year. There’s a reason I’ll be able to take a walk this afternoon without a coat on. There’s a reason my daughter will be riding the new bike she got for her birthday weeks ago instead of a sled. It’s not because Mother Nature is blessing us. It’s because her polar ice caps are breaking off and melting faster than she can replenish them. We’re making Mother Nature too damn hot. Ice melts, oceans rise, and bam! Hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, and gorgeous January weather ensue. It’s not imaginary. It’s not scientific hocus pocus. It’s reality.

Each morning when I walk out to my car yet again without a winter coat, I revel in another beautiful morning that I don’t have to scrap frost off my car windows, I can’t see my breath, and my bald head doesn’t scream in agony from the chill. It doesn’t take long, though, before a twinge of guilt and stark reality ruin the sensation, though. I know what’s going on and why, and I know if something isn’t done fairly soon, we’ll only continue to receive warmer weather, which really isn’t something to applaud or welcome.

These are the kind of things that depress the hell out of me. I’ll probably cruise through the rest of my life and remain mostly unaffected directly by the climate’s and earth’s ongoing transformation, but our kids and theirs and theirs will suffer, and it’s mostly due to our generations’ inability to do something concrete and constructive to address the problem. And that sucks. It’s irresponsible, and it’s wrong. So, while I laugh and giggle and bask in watching my little girl peddle her little legs down the sidewalk on her new princess bike in the dead of winter, I know one day she’s going to be dealing with some serious problems that the population as a whole now inhabiting the planet should have least tried to do something about in a collective manner.

So, what if anything is positive about any of this? Well, despite my doubts that greed, lack of vision, ignorance, and general selfishness won’t allow my generation to truly address such problems today—there’s too much to sacrifice and lose apparently in the way of money, power, military security, favorable tax laws, etc.—I have faith in generations younger than mine will see through such crap do take responsible action.

I’m optimistic about the intelligence, compassion, dedication, and abilities of these generations. I’m optimistic about the constantly evolving technology being produced and the ability to use it to not only make our lives easier, more connected, and more entertaining today but to help remedy what is ailing the world tomorrow. I’m optimistic that there are brighter minds than ours to come that will recognize that to fix a problem, you must sacrifice, toil, and commit to repair—not continue to make the problem worse. I’m optimistic that rather than breaking the ice, as it were, by talking about how nice the weather is, tomorrow’s generations will actually respond to the fact that weather in most regions isn’t supposed to be pleasant and ideal all year round. It’s supposed to fluctuate in order to replenish resources. It’s supposed to be variable in order to remain constant.

I truly am optimistic about future generations’ ability to, if not completely rectify the problems we’ve made, than to at least address them with actual vigor and energy to ease them much as possible. I see evidence of such abilities every day in my own children and others. Further, I’m optimistic that the evidence I see is being birthed by at least some good influences trickling down from current generations, meaning that it’s not too late for me and you to get our shit together and better the cause, too.