Reality Check

A burned out forest near a lake.
It’s time for a reality check, people. Look at the world around you, leave your opinions behind and consider the facts.
(Photo: Dennis Larsen/Pixabay | Text: David/ArtisanEnglish.jp)

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WotD: Reality check

It’s time for a reality check, people.

Look at the world around you, leave your opinions behind and consider the facts.

During the end of 2019 and early 2020, Australia experienced the worst wildfires in recorded history.

An area larger than many countries burned while millions of koalas, kangaroos, wombats and various animals perished in the flames.

If you ever had any doubts about global warming or climate change, this should be your reality check.


A reality check occurs when you leave your opinions about an issue behind and instead focus only on the facts, or in other words, reality.


Now, California, no, the entire west coast of the US and Canada is enveloped in dense clouds of smoke because of the largest wildfires in recorded Californian history.

Heck, the smoke has gone to Boston and created a haze there on the east coast of North America.

Reality check: This sh** is real.

Summers in Japan are becoming hotter and hotter.

I’ve noticed a change in my twenty-something years living here.

Now, weathercasters say the words 危険暑い or dangerous heat.

My wife’s high school did not have air conditioning.

It would be suicide or murder to have to study in a class with 39 other students and a temperature of 38℃ and humidity hitting 79% or higher.

Things have changed.

We have most likely already passed the point of no return.

We missed the wake-up call while we debated whether we were experiencing global warming or climate change and if it was human-caused or natural.

Reality check: Does it matter?

When planes cannot fly because it’s too hot (Phoenix, Arizona) or the air quality threatens people’s lives, it’s time for humanity to realize this is happening and for Western nations to take the lead in dealing with it.


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 64.

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.



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