Even if we're keenly aware of what we're doing, we humans are pretty bad at remaining objective when it comes to weather patterns. "Is the weather getting weirder?" we ask ourselves, and most often, our answers will reflect our personal experiences, rather than our knowledge of a global trend. But why do we willingly take such a myopic view?
Here's an example - in the episode of MinuteEarth above, they talk about the year 2012, when the UK endured their wettest week on record. Those who experienced flooding as a result said they'd noticed wetter and wetter weather throughout the course of their lives, while those who didn't experience flooding said the wetness seemed to have increased in 2012 alone.
That same year, before a withering drought hit the American midwest, researchers found that 41 percent of the locals thought they'd detected a long-term uptick in the frequency and intensity of dry spells, says MinuteEarth, but after the 2012 drought? That number soared to 66 percent. So one drought equals a decades-long trend in our minds? Yep - our minds are naturally inclined towards our freshest impressions of a situation.
And it goes one step further. Even if we experience the exact same weather events - and the exact same after-effects - as other people, our impressions on how weird they are can still differ significantly. Our impressions are influenced by an array of factors, including whether we think man-made climate change is real, what our political persuasion is, and even which news outlets we frequent. Watch the latest episode of MinuteEarth above to find out just how beholden we are to our preconceived ideas. The more aware of it we are, the more equipped we are to fight it, right?
Source: MinuteEarth