By Mary O’KEEFE

“More than a century of burning fossil fuels as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use has led to global warming of 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. This has resulted in more frequent and more intense extreme weather events that have caused increasingly dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world,” according to a statement from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on March 20.

You know how sometimes you’re driving along and all of a sudden an emergency vehicle with sirens appears? You didn’t hear the siren even though it was close. Well, some studies have shown this is a growing issue as the sounds of sirens are more common now than in the past. This is not just because there are more responding emergency vehicles on the roadways, which is part of it, but also we hear siren-type noises more often, like when a car alarm goes off, and have become complacent to these sounds. Data has shown that some drivers will respond in erratic ways when they hear emergency sirens – either coming to a sudden stop in front of the emergency vehicle or, instead of slowing down, speed up.

This seems to be how some people hear the warnings about climate change. It is not because they don’t care or even because they don’t believe but in some cases it is simply a matter of too many sirens going off at once. The problem is, as with emergency sirens, if we ignore them we are ignoring the reason the siren activated in the first place. When your car alarm goes off, you may think it is a false alarm but there is a small part of you that thinks, “I better check, just in case.”

Again – this is how many of us have looked at climate change. This latest IPCC report states that there are “multiple, feasible and effective options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change, and they are available now” – but countries need to act fast.

“This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a livable sustainable future for all,” stated IPCC chair Hoesung Lee.

In 2018, IPCC reported on the challenge required to keep global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. “Five years later that challenge has become even greater due to a continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions.”

More than a century of burning fossil fuels, as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use, has led to global warming of 2.0 degrees F, according to the report.

In other words, the sirens are activated and going off even louder as the danger comes closer.

Ignoring the obvious is something all societies have done since the dawn of time. It seems to be human nature to think that in the end we will be fine – the “we survived worse” attitude. One of the best sci-fi films to highlight this view of the world is the 2021 “Don’t Look Up.” To me this is a cross between a docudrama and science fiction. “Don’t Look Up” follows two astronomers who attempt to warn humankind of an approaching comet that will destroy the planet.

Warning: SPOILER ALERT ahead.

The astronomers, portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence as Kate Dibiasky and Leonardo DiCaprio as Dr. Randall Mindy, start out as pure scientists. They look at data, analyze and share their findings. There are no politics, at least not at first, but that’s before they make the really big, substantial discovery that could change everything … that’s when the purity of knowledge becomes tainted by human greed, power and fear.

Dr. Mindy becomes swayed, and corrupted, by the power of public attention. He becomes the face of science and gets dazzled by the attention forgetting his true mission of warning the world. Dibiasky continues to follow the science but is not heard over Mindy’s celebrity.

Dibiasky is turned into a meme joke on the internet, which basically destroys her credibility. People at first think this might be a threat but through the power of television actors who portray themselves as journalists, along with politicians and easily corrupted scientist-types, the public is assured there is nothing to worry about and everyone believes them – not science fact. Even the President, portrayed by Meryl Streep, tells everyone this too shall pass. Then, as is often the case, the President’s political life is threatened so the life-ending comet now seems like a perfect distraction.

The countries’ attempt to destroy the comet with nuclear devices fail … it is interesting how often science fiction turns to nuclear bombs to save humanity but the bomb rarely does the job. Anyway, because all the signs of imminent destruction have been ignored the Earth is doomed. In the end people are shocked that this happened, wondering why they weren’t warned … even though they were, over and over again. The rich and powerful find a way to escape to another planet, although there is a bit of poetic justice after they landed, and Mindy finally realizes his mistakes. By the way, Dibiasky, the female scientist who actually first discovered the comet, never wavered on her findings, its danger and her duty to warn others. Just saying.

Normally I like more subtle films that the audience has to work through to see the true meaning but “Don’t Look Up,” even with its hit over the head, scream in your ear and, at times, tantrum approaches to get attention, was really fun and terrifying all at the same time.

It is actually what this IPCC 2023 report is all about: a warning that the proverbial comet is coming but there are solutions. We can no longer expect to completely destroy the “comet” but maybe we can redirect it to lessen the impact. The one action we cannot take is to ignore it.

For our short-term future, it looks like we may be drying out, according to NOAA. The storm that hit on Tuesday and Wednesday this week brought some lower snow levels, about 4,000 feet, which caused traffic to be escorted through the grapevine on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. But starting today there should be a drying trend with a little warming with temperatures expected to be in the high 60s.

Enjoy the dry weather over the weekend because beginning next week, around Tuesday and Wednesday, there is another rainstorm predicted.