82Eridani wrote:

Glad to hear his home is safe for now, and hope it remains so. Climate change has impacted so much of the world. My fear is we've tipped too far over the edge of global warming, so extreme winds, unaccustomed fluctuations in temperatures and too much rainfall in too little time is the new norm.

Oh, we are there all right. I would be quite surprised if climate change and weather catastrophes don’t accelerate. But I don’t believe we’ve crossed some sort of tipping point. I think it’s remediable. It just that humans are ill equipped to make the changes necessary, and we will dabble at the edges while we dither and debate until it’s much much worse.

Felicitous Sk8er wrote:

That is astounding about your friend, Star.  I happened to fly over the decimated Los Angeles area several months later.  The scope was staggering.  

So many of us have been closely touched by raging wildfires.  Remember Spokane's 2025 Worldcon?  Raging  wildfires north of the city turned area skies an unarthly sick color, with a correspondingly ghastly air quality.      

My sister has a friend in Lahaina, Hawaii who  lost everything in the 2023 apocalypse there.  She and her family counted themselves beyond fortunate to escape by the nick of their teeth.  Her friend is a vet.  We were sickened by the thought that her many pets had perished.  I never learned the details but by some miracle they were able to save them all. 

My sister lives on a huge lake in British Columbia, Canada -- but backed by countless miles of dense forest.  Approx 6 years ago they had to flee their home because of raging wildfires.  As my sister and her husband jumped in their boat to get away, she looked back, certain that was the last time they would ever see their house.  Thankfully, winds shifted at the last minute, so all homes on that shore were saved but the burn scars 1.5 miles away remain obvious.    
Our rural home is in a forested area near a national forest.  Several years ago we too were threatened, living under Level 1 evacuation orders ("get ready") and a mile away from the Level 2 perimeter ("get set") for a full 2 weeks. (Level 3 is "go" -- mandatory evacuation).  Cinders fell from the sickly yellow sky like snow.  We were the last remaining family in our neighborhood but thanks to dedicated fire crews, got through it and were able to stay. 

Looking back at this thread, and well-remembering the devastating fires in AUS and so many other places, this is horrifyingly starting to feel like the norm.  I now wonder if there are any of us who haven't been directly impacted?    

Truly awful. This planet could be a Garden with proper stewardship...