How’s the weather where you live this summer? While we experienced record-breaking heat during our recent California vacation, torrential rains fell here at home in southern Ontario. This is definitely the year of crazy summer weather.
Welcome to the 73rd edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a decluttering challenge for the week. In addition to crazy summer weather, this week’s edition looks at Paris’s green Olympics, leaders in renewable energy, and the real impact of EVs.
On my mind this week: Crazy summer weather
We spent our vacation in Northern California where we visited Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite National Park and Napa. When we landed in San Francisco, the temperate was a cool-ish 68F (20C). As we drove toward Sacramento, we watched the car thermometer rise to 102F (39C). During our time in Yosemite, temperatures hit 108F (42C).
As California and much of the western United States and Canada suffer sweltering heat, the weather at home has been equally frightful. A couple of days after we left, the remnants of Hurricane Beryl dumped significant rainfall on Kitchener-Waterloo. But that wasn’t all. The day before we returned home, another monster storm dumped a season’s worth of rainfall on our region in a single day.
We were gone for 8 days and the rain gauge on our deck had overflowed. An 8” deep pail on our deck was also full. That’s a lot of rain in 8 days.
The summer of 2024 is shaping up to be a wild one on the weather front. I suppose this is the kind of volatile weather we’ll need to get used to thanks to climate change.
In happier news, here are some pictures of our vacation. The heat definitely limited the amount of hiking we could do, but we still enjoyed some spectacular vistas.
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Three highlights of the week
It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:
- Last Saturday, I celebrated my 60th birthday dinner with a dinner with friends and colleagues from my professional association.
- We were grateful to be able to fly into our local airport and not have to battle the busy summer season at Pearson Airport in Toronto…not to mention the long drive home after a tiring day of travel.
- The hydrangeas we planted at the end of our deck last fall have doubled in size and they’re already flowering.
Things I learned this week
Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:
Paris 2024 – The green Olympics
Although I’m more of a winter Olympics fan, I do love the summer Olympics. I’m excited for Paris 2024 because, now that I’m retired, I’ll be able to watch my favourite events live.
I was excited to hear of Paris 2024’s plan to halve the carbon emissions of the two previous Olympic games. Some of their commitments include:
- Powering the games with 100% renewable energy and minimizing the use of diesel generators.
- Ensuring that 95% of buildings are pre-existing or temporary.
- Planning to convert much of the Olympic Village into affordable housing after the games.
- Serving more plant-based meal options, and sourcing 80% of food from local sources.
Learn more about the green games on the official website of the Paris 2024 Olympic games.
Brazil leads the G20 with renewable energy
Brazil leads the G20 in renewable energy, coming in at an impressive 89% thanks to their strong adoption of wind and solar power.
Canada ranks second, largely due to our extensive hydroelectric base. However, our adoption of wind and solar power lags behind the global average.
(Source: CBC What on Earth)
Are EVs really greener?
Climate naysayers love spreading false information to discredit electric vehicles (EVs). A few weeks ago, I saw a Facebook post where someone said it takes 8 years for an EV to break even from a sustainability point of view. Fact or fiction?
While it’s true that manufacturing EVs consumes more resources, that’s where it ends. Unlike a gasoline-powered car, your EV doesn’t produce emissions every time you drive it. A study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) shows EVs become cleaner than gasoline vehicles after driving between 17,500 and 21,300 miles (28,000 to 34,000 kilometres).
So after about 2 years of average driving, the impact of your EV is less than a gasoline-powered vehicle and will remain so for the vehicle’s lifespan.
(Source: Happy Eco News)
This week’s decluttering challenge – Closet decluttering
In 2024, I’ve been revisiting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge I completed in 2021. This week’s challenge was decluttering non-clothing items from my closet, and I’m happy to report I decluttered 8 items. You can find the details, along with my tips and learnings, in this week’s decluttering post.
If you’d like to join the challenge, visit this post to download your free checklists and jump right in with this week’s task.
I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.
Thank you for posting your beautiful photographs. Humid heat sucks the energy right out of us! I am looking forward to some “civilized” temperatures in southern Ireland, very soon!! 😉
That was the only good thing about the heat in California. It was not humid at all. Just friggin’ hot!
Absolutely wonderful pictures. What a lovely list of places to visit. And how interesting about EVs. Thanks for the great Sunday Spark!
Thank you Wynne. Yes, Northern California was definitely beautiful. Have a terrific Sunday and a great week!
Beautiful photos. I’m glad you got some pleasure from your holiday, despite the weather. It’s been horrible here in Scotland too. It’s warm, butt muggy now, but we were feeling the cold for a bit. We’ve not seen much sun
Thanks Brenda. My sister, who lives in England, says the weather has been all over the place too. I hope the sun shines for you soon!
Oh my goodness. Thanks for sharing your pics of Tahoe and Yosemite…two of my dad’s favorite places. Giving me all the good vibes this morning, Michelle! 🥰
It really is a beautiful place. Very awe inspiring!
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As bad as you had it in Sacramento, it could have been worse. We live on the coast with temperatures similar to San Francisco, but three hours inland from us, Redding was 119 one of those days.
I know. I saw the temperatures in Palm Springs and Vegas during the time we were in California. The hottest day was our day in Yosemite at 108.
The weather has been hot in England. Very muggy. Glad you enjoyed a holiday. Also happy to hear the Paris Olympics are trying to be greener.
The only thing that made the heat tolerable while we were away was the absence of humidity. It was very dry. Here at home, high temperatures always come with high humidity.