Hey, look at what’s going down in the news:

Scientists Call Northwest Heatwave the ‘Most Extreme in World Weather Records’

Well, um, yeah, and as the source of that article, commondreams.org says,

“never in the history plus of world weather observation have so many all-time heat records fallen by such a large margin.”

Well, that’s cautious. Aside from the fact that people were observing the weather since there were people, and the glaciers melting a few times are thrown in there, well, no. But the point, that it’s hot, and signs are that climate is out of whack, are welcome, because it is. Still, there’s more:

“Nowhere is safe… who would have predicted a temperature of 48/49°C [118.4°F/120.2°F] in British Columbia?” Sir David King, the former chief scientific adviser in the United Kingdom, said in an interview with The Guardian. “The risks have been understood and known for so long and we have not acted, now we have a very narrow timeline for us to manage the problem.” Most Extreme in World Weather Records’

Oh, come on. Everyone I know would have predicted this. It is hot here.

Not only does Sir David King have a problem to manage, but so do we: Sir David King.

It is not acceptable to use this land as a showpiece for global warming in the capitals of the world! If you want to know about heat, talk to us. If you want to know how to manage heat and water in a downslope, talk to us. We can take you out to meet the land.

If you don’t want to meet the land and learn a new story, then don’t try to speak for her.

If anyone has told you a different story, I’m sorry, but you have been deceived. We are grieving for Lytton right now. We don’t need this:

Henson and Masters called Lytton—90% of which was burned—the “poster community” of the “horrific” heatwave.

Poster community? Will the disrespect never end? This is not a country for water people, who come to get hot so they can enjoy the little shiver of getting cool again in water. This is dry country. The mountains amplify the sun and pull the water out of your blood, through your skin. We don’t need scientists telling us what we live and feel daily. We don’t need poets and novelists telling us fantasy stories from build environments. We need them to pay attention. Until they do, they are spinning out apocalyptic fantasies that obscure real knowledge. Here’s an image from four years ago, on Turtle Mountain:

As you can see, so much is dead, not just withered back in the heat, but dead. This is an old story here, and it is why things are the way they are. Fire and the sun sort things out. Then the winter cold does, too. Is 59 degrees too hot? Yes. Is climate change a factor? Yes. Is a temperature range of 90 and even 100 degrees Celsius over the year a lot to ask? Yes. But ignoring the knowledge that can ameliorate this suffering is a factor, too. Let’s stop the apocalyptic narratives and live here. And, yeah, it’s hot. The heat is not our problem. The fantasy world we’ve built within it is.