It's getting hot out there

This is getting weird.

The other day, Chris Gloninger, a respected TV meteorologist from Des Moines, Iowa, announced his resignation after 18 years on the job for several different stations across five different states.

He quit because of death threats and other email harassment he was receiving from a climate change denier. He was called a liar by deniers despite the mountain of measurable evidence suggesting – proving – that climate change is a real thing.

Say whut? A death threat against a TV weatherman? Because he was exploring climate change and bringing his message to the people?

He was called a liar by deniers despite the mountain of measurable evidence suggesting – proving – that climate change is a real thing.

Just a few days ago, the Earth experienced its all-time high average global temperature of 63 degrees, according to the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer. This system has been in effect for 44 years. The global reading had never had a single-day reading higher than 62.6 until this past week. The entire week had an average of 62.6. On Thursday, it reached a single-day record of 63 degrees.

Now 63 degrees seems comfortable enough until you understand that it takes in temperatures from all points on the planet: the ice caps, the deserts, the mountains, the oceans. So you can see how a sustained increase of even one degree can be significant to the planet.

And obvious, even to the layman. Or it should be. Sea levels are rising because glaciers are melting. Fossil fuels help create thermal inversions, which spawn more tornadoes and stronger and more frequent hurricanes. Or even hailstorms that spit golf ball-sized ice bullets at you. 

Kim and I once visited Anchorage, Alaska, in 1992 and one of our stops was to Exit Glacier, which is a landlocked marvel. I recently read where Exit Glacier has retreated a quarter of a mile from where we once visited 31 years ago. Not that long ago, really.

I don't get science deniers. Science is the science of proof and, consequently, it's the science of truth. Science is based on research, empirical evidence and peer review. And, yet, in the contrarian world of right-winging conspiracists, we have flat-earthers and anti-vaxxers who end up causing great harm for the rest of us both socially and physically.

The 19th century parable of the Truth and the Lie recently came to my attention. I'll try to keep it short:

"The Truth and the Lie meet one day. They stroll to a well and the Lie says, 'The water is nice. Let's take a bath together.'

So they disrobe and enter the well. Suddenly, the Lie comes out of the water and puts on the clothes of the Truth and runs away. The Truth comes out of the well but cannot find the Lie to get her clothes back. The World, seeing the unclothed Truth, turns its gaze away with contempt and rage.

The Truth returns to the well and disappears forever, hiding its shame. The Lie travels around the World, dressed as the Truth, satisfying the needs of society because the World, in any case, harbors no wish at all to meet the naked Truth."

Wow. Food for thought.