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* Aaannnnd here it comes. The smoke had been skipping us this year, until now. Fuck.
I'd been watching east coast people having their first experience of doing the risk management of going outside in smoke, deciding how bad was bad, and going 'well, air Q site says it's hazardous but wouldn't all this get cancelled if air is hazardous?' mental calculations for the first time. Yeah, events are pressured to not cancel unless there are like norms and regulations around having outs for air hazards. It's a sort of... social infrastructure we haven't settled yet.
It's stressful to get very competing signals of 'air bad' and the social pressure of events still happening. It's been a thing to watch people go through what I did a few years ago in terms of changing thresholds and risk levels.
I have also seen some people make deeply incorrect statements about having 'the worst' AQ in the world or 'much worse than what those West coasters were freaking out about last year' and... people just do not have a good overall grasp of AQ problems and fall in love with the idea of their situation being uniquely 'the most bad'. I've held my tongue because I was worried about it sounding like regional competitiveness. But it was worrying to see how misinformed some people were, especially people in 200 AQI areas be very sure that they had the worst air ever recorded in the US? Where do some people get their information?
* And speaking of having to make calls about AQ versus events... Well, I'll play it by ear. Right now some of our smoke is from firework fires in the city so this might even out in a few days. We'll see. But, this weekend I have not one, but two potential social things that would involve like actually talking directly to people and not just like being in the same place as people. There is an FTM meetup group starting. Also, a Bi meetup is having a 'guy time hang out night' at a bar that is specifically inclusive of trans people and masc-identified people in general. Even if the air is bad, it's worth it to me to go... but will everyone else cancel? Guess I'll find out.
* Also whhhaaaat Q Center drama is causing a lot of groups to pull away and make petitions and stuff? I really should write tonight and not spend time online trying to chase down WTF is going on...
I'd been watching east coast people having their first experience of doing the risk management of going outside in smoke, deciding how bad was bad, and going 'well, air Q site says it's hazardous but wouldn't all this get cancelled if air is hazardous?' mental calculations for the first time. Yeah, events are pressured to not cancel unless there are like norms and regulations around having outs for air hazards. It's a sort of... social infrastructure we haven't settled yet.
It's stressful to get very competing signals of 'air bad' and the social pressure of events still happening. It's been a thing to watch people go through what I did a few years ago in terms of changing thresholds and risk levels.
I have also seen some people make deeply incorrect statements about having 'the worst' AQ in the world or 'much worse than what those West coasters were freaking out about last year' and... people just do not have a good overall grasp of AQ problems and fall in love with the idea of their situation being uniquely 'the most bad'. I've held my tongue because I was worried about it sounding like regional competitiveness. But it was worrying to see how misinformed some people were, especially people in 200 AQI areas be very sure that they had the worst air ever recorded in the US? Where do some people get their information?
* And speaking of having to make calls about AQ versus events... Well, I'll play it by ear. Right now some of our smoke is from firework fires in the city so this might even out in a few days. We'll see. But, this weekend I have not one, but two potential social things that would involve like actually talking directly to people and not just like being in the same place as people. There is an FTM meetup group starting. Also, a Bi meetup is having a 'guy time hang out night' at a bar that is specifically inclusive of trans people and masc-identified people in general. Even if the air is bad, it's worth it to me to go... but will everyone else cancel? Guess I'll find out.
* Also whhhaaaat Q Center drama is causing a lot of groups to pull away and make petitions and stuff? I really should write tonight and not spend time online trying to chase down WTF is going on...
no subject
Date: 2023-07-05 07:40 pm (UTC)From:We've had a few really bad bouts of it here over the last couple years.
Why are people so weird about numbers and *needing* to be the best/worst or nothing? I mean, it is a little vindicating to see a high AQI number when you're struggling to see across the street or whatever... but I did see at least a handful of "OMG THIS IS THE WORST AIR EVER MEASURED EVER IN THE HISTORY OF EVERYWHERE" statements, when... no?
Air quality aside, I really hope you can go to either or both of those meetups!
no subject
Date: 2023-07-05 11:54 pm (UTC)From:It's like oppression Olympics in climate change fallout.
no subject
Date: 2023-07-06 01:45 am (UTC)From:And then it is that sort of oppression olympics deal, where your personal climate change-driven disaster must be worse than all the other climate change-driven disasters that everyone else is facing.