i’ve said for a very long time that we are living in the opening credits of a disaster movie. the opening credits are news clips of increasing earthquakes or severe hurricanes or massive tornados. in the movies, 10 years of news clips happens in 3 minutes. so all you can think to yourself is, ‘how did they not see that coming?!’

so because it’s all about the global climate strike today, i thought i would share a bit about climate change in the midwest.

first, a brief lesson

climate and weather are 2 different things. but they are connected! weather is what happens everyday. climate is the trend of weather over time. so the average weather over 30, 50, 100 or even 500 years is climate!

when weather becomes more severe or extreme, it is going to change the climate! 100 days of record high temperatures will increase the average weather over time. (that’s climate, remember?!)

how can we fix it? first, we have to figure out if what we (the humans) are doing is causing the change or not. GUESS WHAT?!?!!!! it’s us. and we’ve known this for YEARS!

greenhouse gases are increasing which is causing warmer temperatures. and like i mentioned earlier, more extreme weather days will change our climate. this is happening all around the world. every day. july was the hottest on record. ever.

so does it begin or end with weather?!

i have no idea! this is very chicken or the egg?!?!!!!! and i’m too tired to do the necessary internet research. but what i do know is that the weather this year in the midwest has been very up and down!

• on september 17 at 11.30am it was already 82ºF (or 28ºC). this is NOT normal.
• last week sioux falls had tornados. having a tornados in south dakota is normal. having 3 (all ef2) in one night, in town, in september is NOT normal.
• we have had an incredibly wet year. all it seems to be doing is raining and A LOT at a time. last week we had over 2 inches (5 cm) in a day. this is NOT so normal.
• we’ve had so much rain, and so quickly, that we’ve flooded not once, but several times already. the creek across the street from my parents house hit a record high crest earlier this year. we are constantly in flood warnings. this is NOT normal.
• south dakota is a farming state. and we are also #1 in unplanted fields. NOT normal (and also not great for farmers or our economy).

so get out there and strike!

the climate is changing and we have to make change. we are only going to have more severe and extreme weather conditions. we are in the beginning credits of that disaster movie! only we aren’t in a movie and once it ends, well, i’m not sure where we will be living (if we are living at all).

this is NOT normal. we need to stand up, be heard and force our lawmakers to make change! so get out there and strike!

not ready to strike?

don’t worry. no judgement here!!!

i’m just glad you’ve taken the first step and learned a bit about weather, climate and the changes we are seeing! now you can learn how you can make changes at home to help our planet!