More than ever we live in a world of extremes. Perhaps most notable is our political landscape, where the far left and far right set the agenda and define the terms. But it goes beyond the stands that are taken on various issues to how those stands are manifested. Policies become mortal threats, debates become shouting matches, and opponents become enemies. And it seems as though we only have ourselves to blame for the polarization. While we may say we want to meet in the middle, research says we don't: a study recently published in Scientific American show a tendency for people to not only prefer what the ancient Greeks called homophily, or a love of the similar, but also acrophily, a love of extremes.
Outside of politics and social issues, that love of pushing the envelope has also meant that things that used to be considered extreme are now considered mainstream. Extreme sports used to include scuba diving and rock climbing. Now unless you do them in a cave or without a rope they are for the masses. As evidenced by the Met gala and what you see walking down the street, clothing and fashion knows no bounds. And it's the same for all things involving food. Whether it's unusual ingredients or cutting-edge preparations, what once would have raised an eyebrow is now mass market: liquid nitrogen ice cream is now available at the mall.
In the natural world as well, the extremes are becoming more common. Studies have shown that climate change has made extreme weather events more likely or more severe. These include wildfires and flooding, as well as storms and all sorts of atmospheric disturbances. Thunderstorms, hurricanes and typhoons occur with increasing strength, and there are events for which new names have had to be created. There's the bomb cyclone, an intense winter storm where the pressure drops quickly and precipitously. There's the polar vortex, where artic air rushes into more southern climes, resulting in record breaking cold. And there are atmospheric lakes (large intense rainstorms), firenados (flaming columns of rotating fire that erupt during wildfires) and even flash droughts (the rapid onset or intensification of a drought that develops over the course of a month or less).
The latest new moniker comes from the National Weather Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it's related to temperature extremes. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, heat is by far the number one weather cause of death in the United States, responsible for 1200 fatalities last year. Until just recently the severity of that heat was represented by a four-step color scale that indicated the magnitude of the risk. At the low end, pale green meant it was just comfy, with little to no risk. Onward to yellow for minor risk, mainly to those that were old, sick or pregnant, continuing upward to orange, which cautioned those who are sensitive to higher temperatures. The top was the proverbial red alert, reserved for when a day falls within the top 5% hottest in a particular location for a particular date.
But that wasn't enough anymore. As heat waves increase in intensity and length, red just didn't cut it anymore. And so the four-step scale has been increased to five, with magenta being on beyond the end. That label is reserved for the most extreme of conditions, those characterized by rare and/or long-duration extreme heat that persists with little to no overnight relief. Unlike other weather phenomena that you can see, heat is invisible, and so this designation will tell you without looking out the window that you are in dangerous territory. Or in Spinal Tap terms, a Magenta Heat Wave goes to eleven.
My buddy JP Patrick wrote and recorded a song a few years ago, a blues-tinged rocker that talks about just how melancholy one could get. "You ask how far my blues will go / You think that I can staunch that flow/ I'm sliding through the darkest hues of blues I know / I'm one step shy, shy of indigo / Said I'm one step to the left of Indigo." JP was hoping for a recording contract, but maybe he might have better luck applying his metaphor to weather as opposed to emotions. Maybe instead of selling the lyrics to Buddy Guy or Gary Clark Jr. he should try the CDC. After all, global warming aside, it can get pretty cold out there.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford prefers heat to cold. His column appears weekly via email and online http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/ and https://marcwollin.substack.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
CORRECTION
In last week’s column "Officially Yours," I referenced the political situation in Arizona with a "hard right Republican legislature and a Democrat governor." One reader rightly pointed out that the proper name of the party is "Democratic." Democrat is a noun referring to a member of the party, while Democratic is its given name. Sloppy writing and editing (both are blamable on me) led to the mistake, which is actually a partisan slap used by Republicans dating back to Tom Dewey in 1940, and subsequently by Joe McCarthy and others. That was not the intent, just a simple error on my part.
Purely on a grammatical note, if members of the Republican Party are Republicans, one might think that members of the Democratic Party are Democratics as opposed to Democrats, but that’s the English language for you. After all, it was George Carlin who noted we park on driveways and drive on parkways, so what are you gonna do?
If I gave offence to any, my apologies: it has been corrected in the archives.
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