how’s the weather?

So, my plant’s dying. And I’m struggling to save her life.

Her name is Paris.

On Monday, I unintentionally put Paris in harm’s way when I left her outside on our balcony. On any other day, that might be alright because she’ll enjoy some sunlight for a couple of hours before I bring her back indoors.

But this day—this Monday—was the worst day to leave Paris outside.

With a daily temperature high of 41°C, Monday, June 28th, was probably the hottest day of my life. It was scorching hot outside and inside (thanks to British Columbia’s lack of air conditioning in residential areas), and my sweat glands overworked themselves to keep me alive.

But the hot weather wasn’t limited to British Columbia. Cities across the Pacific Northwest experienced extreme heat over the last few days.

And although the temperature’s trending downwards now, the craziness of the heatwave got me (and several Americans and Canadians) thinking about climate change.

If last Monday was a sign of many hotter days to come? How many more plants will die? Hell, forget the plants for a second; how many more people will die?

Between Friday and Wednesday, 486 sudden deaths were reported in British Columbia. Hundreds more in Oregon and Washington. And the majority of these deaths are being attributed to extreme weather conditions.

Over the past decade, the term ‘climate change’ (or its effect ‘global warming’) has sometimes been used to describe events that are far into the future. But given what many people in the Pacific Northwest just experienced, I think we might be in the thick of it.

That’s our reality, and regardless of where you stand with that assertion, you should probably start considering an alternative to this age-old icebreaker question: ‘How’s the weather?’