Mildly Infuriating

Most of the deniers I know are in the Midwest. They've had "hundred year storms", draught, and winter cold now for about 5 years in a row and it didn't phase them. Finally this year they were blanketed in wildfire smoke (and in the 25 years I grew up there we never had smoke) - and finally some of them are starting to realize something is up.

Oh everyone else says it's a thing, well nothing happened to me so it's obviously fake.

but now that it is happening to them directly it might be worth looking into

Climate deniers think all the forest fires are some government conspiracy because a bunch of fires starting all at the same time is super sus. Even though it happens all the time after a big heatwave / drought and pine forests are made to burn. Sometimes these trees will just... not spontaneously combust exactly, but pretty much do. Pine forests are built to burn every 2 years or so, it's one of the ways they reproduce - pines are genetically predisposed to catching fire easily and their sap is very very flammable. These forests burn hot and quickly but a fast fire isn't a very destructive fire. These trees often are not burnt to the ground. However, we are so effective at putting fires out so this 2 year burn off isn't happening. So, years of underbrush, etc is building up that otherwise wouldn't be. This makes what is supposed to be a fast burn fire, into a slow burn one. What would be a natural fireline because there is a large gap between some trees, isn't one because all the underbrush connects them.

So it's not just because of climate change, but we are responsible either way. There aren't any easy answers for this one because there are houses scattered all over the places. But there is no helping these Trump worshipping conspiracy theorists and we need to consider them a lost cause. Nothing will shake their faith in their Orange God so we must bolster against them and move on without them.

It will snow one day in two years and they go: see?

not from what I have seen but I have noticed people who gave it token acknowledgement before are starting to realize how serious it is.

Lol no, they've sunk too much social capital into it.

For a bit I'd walk into discussions about how weather has been insane the last few years and say "yep, the climate is changing" (no mention of cause, even) and there'd just be awkward silence. Now I'm hearing people blame the sun, because I guess they've figured out a comeback to their own observations.

Thankfully technology is bailing us out even though we don't deserve it.

Ahahahahaha. You're funny. They're only emboldended in their denial.

The only actual hope would be that the fires and floods claim them. We need to find a way to basically let the dickheads be the tip of the spear idiots like Alex Jones always claim they supposedly are. If they had to actually face these issues themselves, at actual danger, that might change their lives. Or alternative, at least remove them as an obstacle to actual action.

Narrator: it won't

When the fires finally hit the east coast, I was hoping my family would wake up a smidge. Instead, my uncle convinced my Mother that this was the work of bioterrorists.

Climate deniers won't accept what is happening until it directly affects them, and even then, they still might do mental gymnastics to make it about something else.

They aren't affected badly enough yet. Plus, there are still immigrants around to blame. Just wait, "immigrants set the fire" will happen.

a few years ago when Portland had all those fires, I walked out of work and the sky was literally RED. It looked like a fucking bomb got dropped here with all the smoke in the air.

Ok well let me provide some contrast please.

I live in north Seattle area, but I'm originally from upstate NY. I went back yo NY this year for family, when things there were unusually smokey for once.

IT WAS WAY WORSE THAT IVE EVER SEEN IT IN NORTH SEATTLE, EVEN THOUGH THE AQI FIGURED WERE LOWER. Add to that, people don't know the most basic things about coping woth smoke there, like making box fan + furnace filters.

So yeah they complained a lot because it was truly very very bad. I sincerely hope we don't have to deal with that becuase in the 12 years I've been in PNW, it's NEVER been close to as bad as NY earlier this year.

I've had the AC filters, and they make a difference, just don't forget to change them afterward. I also ended up buying one of those home air purifier things (something I never thought I'd do), and that's helped with the air in my bedroom at night as well - I'm no longer waking up with headaches. That plus an N95 mask outside and I'm actually doing okay!

Could feel it too. Anything above 100 is already unpleasant. It got so bad it was like a gritty orange fog, and the smell got into everything. Couldn't see ten meters on the worst days. Thankfully we had air filter units already for hayfever season.