Rain on Larchmont

The past two days have seen some much-needed, long-awaited rain—mostly because the temperature has been down in the mid-70s.

The recent weather—the intensely hot summer and the upcoming rainy season—is all from a ‘super El Niño,’ but this one they’re saying is so immense it’s earned the nickname of a Godzilla El Niño. While whether or not it’s a direct correlation to the climate crisis isn’t possible to prove, studies show it’s probable.

As the heat in summer increases we’ll need an increasing amount of power to stay cool, which plays into the whole energy debate that is at the center of all this. But in the winter the problem in LA is something else entirely—the existing city infrastructure just can’t handle rain. Every time it floods more than a couple inches, entire streets flood and mudslides threaten many areas across the region.

And that’s the thing about the climate crisis—for so many years we’ve been calling it ‘global warming,’ and so the general image that comes to mind is just the temperature is going to rise. But the weather is going to threaten all kinds of infrastructure around the weather, and I don’t think many people appreciate the causes and effects of weather systems (and how much destruction they can bring). Today, I’m enjoying the rain, but tomorrow, we might all be underwater.

Western and Olympic

James M Wood and Vermont

It’s been a brutal summer to drive around for me, as my 1999 Subaru hasn’t had a functional air conditioner in many years. The heat seems intermittent now at best, and I will be glad when the forecast doesn’t include any days in the mid-90s.

Morning light

It’s supposed to hit the mid-90s again this weekend, but only for a few days, and meanwhile there’s a cool breeze in the air that makes me think fall is finally here.

These days I’ve been thinking about the boiling frog.

The boiling frog is an apologue describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to or be aware of sinister threats that arise gradually rather than suddenly.

Obviously this can be used as a metaphor for power and greed, which I think the United States is a prime example of in its 45-year decline since Reagan took office and conservatism has chipped away at just about everything that was beneficial to the people at large. Today, though, I’m thinking about it in a more literal sense.

Los Angeles is currently being hit with its third heat wave this summer. Usually in LA, the season is certainly on the warmer side, generally ranging between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit with a few days that reach the hundreds. This year we’ve had three separate occasions where week-long heat waves where the low temperature would be 95 and even the middle of the night will be 80. While this is also a side effect of the Super El Niño going on, it certainly raises some eyebrows when it comes to climate change.

At this point it’s deadly obvious the United States has no interest in preparing for the possibly apocalyptic levels of displacement and death that could occur over the next 20-50 years. It’s not like the wealthy would care—they will most likely profit in air-conditioned offices and afford to avoid any catastrophes, and if a substantial amount of the population dies off, that means the remaining resources on Earth are proportionally larger. And they certainly don’t care about animals.)

While we’ve been the frog in the pot metaphorically for some time, now it seems like we’re in the literal phase. The climate is going to get more extreme, but not all at once. It’s just going to get slowly worse, with a few more deaths every year, until it’s far too late. Those in power will throw up their hands and say, “There’s nothing we can do about it now, you’re all on your own.” The domino effect of social deterioration will accelerate and there’s a decent chance Mad Max: Fury Road is retroactively seen as some kind of prophecy.

And the only way out of the pot is through wealth—and who knows how long that will really extend your life with the possible consequences of this looming crisis.

Ten-day outlook

What in the absolute fuck.

This will now be the third heat wave this summer where temperatures reach in the mid-to-high-nineties for over seven days in a row. Granted, this is only my sixth summer in LA, but nothing has come close to this since I’ve lived here.