"Every day, it seems like there’s another article about how things are going to get worse. How the world is on the brink of disaster."

I am in my sixties, and I have been seeing those articles my whole life, even when they were all on paper. Imminent doom is a good seller. Cults and other intentional communities have seperated themselves from the rest of society to prepare for the end since the 17th Century. And over a long enough timeline, all of us are doomed, we are just going to die in a hospital bed instead of a food riot or sharknado.

They held the Tour de France this year as always, it was even held in 2020, and the last three stages were in or near the Pyrennes on the Spanish border. On the Wednesday and Thursday mountain climbing stages, the temperatures were around 38 degrees Celsius, They were a couple of the greatest stages of the Tour, like ever, with the battle between champion Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard and his Jumbo Visma team. There were the usual throngs of fans, many of whom rode their bikes up to the tops of the mountains to watch the breakaways and peleton go by them in a few seconds. So the heat isn't bothering everybody.