Climate change impacts on everything, including our memories

Memory is to be celebrated, particularly if it is reliable, but frequently facts demonstrate that it is not to be trusted.

The switch from Fahrenheit to Celsius has worsened the reliability of memories, particularly among those whose youth was measured in Fahrenheit temperatures and now, much later in life, they are experiencing temperature in Celsius.

For many older people 100° Fahrenheit was frightfully hot and now they seem to equate that with 40° Celsius, which is in fact, on the old scale, is 104° Fahrenheit.

It was in April 1975 that Australia switched to the metric measurement of heat and it seems that those still locked in that time warp are yet to really understand the earth is warming and that the “hot” of the past is not the “hot” of today.

Temperatures of 45° Celsius have been historically rare in Australia’s major population centres in decades past, but as this century unfolds, they will become increasingly common - 45° Celsius is 113° Fahrenheit!

It is worth noting that at the time of writing this (4:48pm, February 2, 2014); the temperature in Shepparton is 41.2°C which on the old scale is 106.1°F.