Reality report

-Posted by Isaac

After my phone conversation with sister Becky, I thought, How ironic, I’ve been thinking about climate all week.

One of these two people could exemplify me. Guess which one?—

Ha, trick question. I’ll bet you thought I’d be the weathergirl. And you’d be right… ten years ago in front of my classroom. But I’m more of the anchorman these days. Shut up with your climate prattle! Let’s get on with the show.

I had called Becky to ask to borrow her seeder. First thing she said was, “Did you see the debates? I’ll bet you had a clear favorite!”

And no, I hadn’t watched the debates. (Why pay attention? I already know I’m voting for Gary Johnson.) Who could she be talking about? Which one could possibly identify with me? Her answer— the climate guy from Washington. Hmmm… Jay Inslee… never heard of him.

Personally, I’m leaning toward the Asian guy who’s handing out the cash. To everyone!

Andrew Yang! Show me the money! What I couldn’t do with an extra twelve grand a year! Why, that would almost pay for all the protein going to my little darlings. Almost.

Just this morning I finished up the with the first round.

As I said last week, the applying of protein is hot and heavy work. But satisfying. I get to say hello to the girls in the middle of their big summer flow. And just look at that honey coming in!

I stopped by to check a yard that I hit last week. It’s almost gone— only a trace remaining.

A note to you beekeepers (if you’re thinking about doing this)— you don’t want to give them more than they can consume in 10 days or so. After that, you’re feeding hive beetles, not bees. (2-3 pounds on a strong hive.)

And another note— mixing the stuff yourself cuts the cost in half.

I get the Ultrabee powder from Mann Lake. You can find the other ingredients wherever—Sugar, essential oils, soybean oil, coconut oil.

On my shop heater, the soybean and coconut oil take about 20 minutes to liquify.

I like to make sure I’m there for the last couple of minutes, watching that white blob disappear into the dark sea. I think about the ice caps. I think about the glaciers of the world. I look at that white icy blob and think about a little polar bear running to high ground as his whole world melts away. It’s fun.

I’ve done about 40 buckets so far. That’s a lot of voluntary thinking about climate change. It starts with the oils melting in the pot, then continues as I drive from yard to yard. I look at a few washed out culverts, I see a few unplanted fields. The radio tells me Greenland has lost 50 billion tons of ice this summer. I check my news feed and even see that my moneyman Andrew Yang has his own doomsday vision of the thing— head for the hills!

It’s everywhere. I can hardly help thinking about it— the ominous climate news. And I’m not the only one. Occasionally I’ll finish up with a yard and see the landowner as I’m taking off. They always want to know how the bees are doing. But then the conversation drifts. Always to the weather. The flooding, the heat, the wind, and so on. On two separate occasions this week, (unprovoked by me) I had the pleasure of hearing an anti-science, anti-climate rant. “Yeah, that rain, I’ve never seen anything like it, not in my lifetime, and then what do they do, they try to link it to this climate nonsense, and I say, that’s a load of crap, these things come in cycles, well, I remember back in ‘58…”

…So on and so forth. It’s on peoples’ minds. I nod right along. This is denier territory, so I lay low with my facts and figures. And really, who am I to rebut? I’m not a scientist. I’m an idiot. Driver of trucks, haver of kids, eater of meat, burner of coal, consumer of goods… a guilt-ridden, first-world-nation idiot. We’re all idiots.

And I think I see it for what it is, this climate talk through the truck window with a fellow idiot— it’s social signaling. You’re on my team, right? You don’t believe all this liberal BS…

Whether I believe it or not, it’s the signal that matters. Heck yes, I’m on your team! I’ve got bees right over there in the corner of your field.

Call me a coward.

Now that the science has been politicized, there’s a whole bunch of psychology dumped in with all the objective truth, the facts and figures of this monster.

Michael Shermer is one of my favorites. It just so happened, this week he and Lee McIntyre did a great podcast on the defense of science. They served up quite a few dishes on this platter, but climate science and climate denial got the most thorough helping—

What a great job I have! Bees and podcasts all day.

Then I get to report back to you once a week. And I fully expect you to take it all in. Let’s see, you’ve got video clips, an article, and a two hour podcast. What more could you want??

How about a book?

Another reason for my niggling thoughts— I started in on this Pulitzer winner last week. So far, so good. It’s been a great read. We’re doomed.

We’ll touch base and talk about it next week. That is, if you aren’t living in a cave by then, you guilt-ridden first-world idiot.

(Or if you really don’t want to read the book, George Carlin gives a nice summary of the situation.)

(Language alert!)