The droughts and wildfires that have hit this country are signs of what’s to expect with climate change in the coming years, but here’s the thing…people are, I fear, overreacting to this. Meaning, they’re looking at what’s happening and saying that climate change is here, this is the new norm, etc. While that’s mostly right, climate is a variable thing and you need to look at long term trends. I have little doubt that, long term, yeah, this is the new ‘norm’. I also have little doubt, though, that in the next year or two, we’ll probably get a lot of rain, maybe cooler temperatures, and people will then use that as an argument to attempt to refute the idea of climate change, to try to convince others that there’s no threat. Just keep a level head about you, this year was bad, future years will seem better, but you need to look at long term trends of many years when you look at this global climate. Those trends make it clear that the planet is warming, and what’s really scary is that we’re already experiencing bad weather, when the worst impacts of climate change aren’t forecast to happen for many, many more years to come.