Australia is simultaneously burning down and melting, which is a considerable climatic feat when you think about it. There are gas stations that can’t pump fuel because it vaporizes too quickly. It’s gotten so bad that they have had to change the weather maps.
“The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has added dark purple and magenta to its color-coded weather forecasting map to represent temperatures of 51 to 54 degrees Celsius (123.8 to 129.2 Fahrenheit), officials said. Temperatures on the map were previously capped at 50 degrees Celsius, represented by the color black. “In order to better understand what temperatures we might see … we introduced two new colors,” said Aaron Coutts-Smith, manager of climate services at the Bureau of Meteorology”
123.8 to 129.2 Fahrenheit? I can’t even imagine. Charles Pierce sums up what we’re dealing with:
If you can still argue that the evidence is under dispute when it’s 129 degrees outside and the country is both burning and melting all at once, and if you can find a strong enough political constituency for that point of view, there’s really not much any of the rest of us can do.