• @numberfour002
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    711 months ago

    Old person, pointless, war-story time!

    Where I live, fall and winter weather is like this and always has been my entire life. Daytime highs in the 70F (21C) range in fall and winter is definitely above average, but far from abnormal and that’s not even particularly extreme for this time of year. It’s a part of the northern hemisphere where it’s not even rare to have over night lows of 18F (-8C), and within a day or two it’ll be 72F (22C). We even joke about it “Ha ha ha. Don’t like the weather? Just wait a day. Ha ha ha.”

    So, full disclosure: Climate change is real. If we don’t get our shit together, the (human) world is probably going to end (in disaster). But, being honest, if it’s 70F for a few days in November, December, January, February, or March it’s not exactly a sign that the end is near.

    Anyway, on a site that shall not be named, there was a post that showed up on the front page that was from a city I used to live in, and which was geographically close to where I spent most of my childhood. It was an image gallery of a bunch of random plants in flower, during a week of slightly warmer than average weather in December or January, and it was lamenting something along the lines of “People keep saying these flowers are pretty but all I see is a harbinger of the apocalypse.” Highly upvoted and lots of affirmative comments.

    Don’t get me wrong. Climate change is coming, climate change is here. It’s a catastrophe and it’s not a thing I deny exists.

    But, the flowers in their photos were things that are cool season bloomers which start blooming in October/November in my area and basically are in bloom as long as conditions aren’t extremely cold or extremely hot. Most of them were invasive species (like Dandelions and various nettles that bloom year round as long as it’s not too hot or too cold). There was only one thing in their post that would have been a bit “holy shit”, but it was something that was completely unbelievable, likely misidentified, and they refused to provide further evidence on.

    I called it out. Politely, but with conviction. And, let’s just say, it was not well received.

    • @Blue_Morpho
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      11 months ago

      I think the xkcd referenced above is relevant to your post.

      • @numberfour002
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        111 months ago

        Above my post? I don’t get it. My post is a top-level comment to the main submission. The post above mine is dependent on your client and your sorting selection / preferences, so it’ll be different depending on who views this and when.

        • @scottywh
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          311 months ago

          This is the xkcd they were referring to.

          https://xkcd.com/1321/

          Seems like maybe they assumed that everyone uses the same comment sorting settings that they do.

        • @Donjuanme
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          -911 months ago

          You have to scroll up from this post, because that one is witty and reverent, and yours is down voted to the bottom of the page because it’s, well neither of the adjectives that were used prior.

          • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ
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            11 months ago

            They were just adding their personal anecdote, while also highlighting unequivocally that they are not trying to deny climate change is a thing. It’s kinda messed up to put someone down like that just for sharing their thoughts…

          • @numberfour002
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            311 months ago

            So you’re saying it’s in a different post altogether? I’m super confused. Do all posts and comments have to be reverent? I’m new to Lemmy, didn’t realize that was a precondition to posting.

    • @KombatWombat
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      -211 months ago

      Yeah, if winters are warmer now than people remember, it’s not global warming making a noticeable change.

      For perspective, the average global temperature has risen 0.08°C (0.14°F) per decade since 1880. It has increased to (0.18°C / 0.32°F) since 1981, but you still aren’t going to feel that.

      • @[email protected]
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        111 months ago

        Depends on the area one is from. Where I grew up, temperatures were definitely consistently colder in the winter when I was a kid, and we received much more snow. Climate change is not just about the average changing, but the standard deviation as well (over both time and location). Regardless, for many people in the U.S., their USDA plant hardiness zone has changed due to consistently warmer winter weather.