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Health & Fitness

On the Beach

Climate Change - Up Close and Personal?

My late mother, who spent many, many summers on the beach at Coney Island and later in the Rockaways used to say that the water in July is cold but calm and the water in August would be warm but rough. Until this year I never had reason to doubt her.

Has anyone been to the beach lately?  The water temperature is incredibly warm and the water is very choppy with a strong undertow. Exactly what I had come to expect for mid/late August, not July. If the jellyfish show up next week I’ll really be concerned.

Another observation. For all the rain we had in the spring, my backyard has been remarkably free of flying insects, particularly gnats, which were always a problem.  Not that I’m complaining and maybe it has something to do with my tomato plants, but I’m starting to get a feeling, particularly after the non-winter we just experienced, that climate change is going to start to impact the lives of ordinary people in untold ways.

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