the gentleman from texas wants
to change the moon’s orbit or
the earth’s orbit around the sun, to dodge
those solar flares that cause
climate change.

this is where we are.

meanwhile,
lake mead, largest u.s. reservoir,
drops to lowest level ever,
decline will continue til nov., expert sez

150+ acres burn in arizona; even
the firefighting vehicles start blazes,
the vegetation’s so dry

meanwhile, n. dakota farmers
selling off their cattle herds:
"look the weather is bad, our crops look
terrible, lots of us have employees &
families we support. historical drought.
i'm stressed, you're stressed, but
it will be okay. the sun will rise again,
god will only give you
what you can handle,” sez one on f.b.
well, the sun will rise again, anyway,
like it or not . . .

meanwhile,
mexican air force seeds the clouds,
85% of country in severe drought;
worst drought in almost 100 yrs in brazil:
"we're facing a 'dry season' that in reality
is going to last 1 ½ - 2 years,"
sez the professor (burning up the rain-
forest doesn’t help); inflation at 8.1%
hydropower walloped, ag:
“global inventories are shrinking; demand
is on a tear as drought plagues farms
from the u.s. & brazil to russia,”
bloomberg sez. “china is scouring the globe
for all the grains it can find to replenish
stocks & feed its hog herd,
the biggest in the world.”

while 3 m afghan people “likely to be acutely
affected” by drought, as 12 m (⅓ of pop.)
facing “crisis” levels of “food insecurity”;
"the sky has stopped raining on us,
the earth has stopped growing grass for us,
and eventually the government
has also stopped helping us," abdul baqi,
citizen, says, as citizens
of lahore, pakistan told to stay
indoors, out of 109 f heat (heat index 117)

what do you do if home is uninhabitable?
you go somewhere else

in the novel gold fame citrus, people
from s. california are barred from
other states (turnabout fair play?), as
they try to escape the permanent drought
& sand dune sea; our heroes are trying
to escape to lawrence, kansas . . .

this is where we are.

-------------------------------------------
Note: this will be the last regularly-scheduled post to Writing Out of Time. Poem of Our Climate will continue at a new location, to be revealed Monday (June 14).

“do not come. do not come,”
sez v.p. harris to potential migrants.
easy for her to say —
she has a plane on the runway

“what she failed to mention,” sez grist,
“was 2020’s biggest driver of migration:
severe weather, which makes
the ‘do not come’ instruction
nearly impossible to follow. nearly
600k people from honduras,
guatemala, nicaragua were dis-
placed
last yr due to hurricanes eta & iota”

but it’s not just u.s.:
no country offers asylum
to climate refugees . . .
world bank sees 143 m by 2050

& here’s something new:
“climate clocks.”
there’s the “seconds to midnight”
nuclear war clock, now there’s
the “time left to save the world” clock:
yrs. to reach paris goals (under 7),
& how much renewable energy so far
(12%); they’re in ny, ghana, nigeria,
& glasgow (lead-up to copout26);
& euronews’ question is:
“can ticking clocks soothe
climate anxiety?” — that’s the policy
goal now: keep calm
but carry on w/what you’re doing

collective action? yes! —
group therapy

meanwhile:

worst drought in utah since the middle
ages; & drought across the wheat belt:
plains states, prairie provinces,
russia; prices rising as chances
of rain decrease; right-wing u.s.
militias gear up to fight for water . . .

139k acres burned in arizona, 0%
contained, w/“that fierce, intimidating
bright orange glow” after dark

114 f in sonora, mexico: problemas
de deshidratación; “we’re selling
a lot of water,” sez the businessman;

more drought in brazil = less hyrdo-
power = power plants switch to coal =
more co2 = hotter temps =
more drought in brazil

& hot in middle east, even by
middle-eastern standards: 120+
iran, oman, kuwait, u.a.e.:
“harshest heat wave in history
for this time of year,” one that
“can melt crayons, soften asphalt,
warp railroad tracks” —
picture of worker dumping big blocks
of ice into a swimming pool —
heat indices of 140+ on persian gulf

r we uninhabitable yet? or time to
reset our clocks, maybe? whatever
the answer, remember, do not come
here. by the time you get here,
we may have left

here’s the latest:
biden admin defends
trump admin decision
to let conocophillips drill in alaska’s
north slope — but here’s the kicker:
they’re going to have to re-freeze
the permafrost — inserting
“chillers” into the ground so it doesn’t
turn to mush & swallow their rigs
while they’re trying to drill for oil

“chillers & drillers”

not so chilly in miami:
it’s been evacuated.
miami, arizona, that is;
140 acres burned this weekend;
“exceptional drought”
no longer the exception, out west;
lake mead at ⅓ capacity;
"we're at a tipping point,"
sez the nevada water man.
"it's an existential issue for arizona,
for california, for nevada. it is
just that simple.” or
                                                     pray for rain,
as utah’s gov. requests of citizens:
“by praying collaboratively and
collectively, asking god or what-
ever higher power you believe in
for more rain, we may be able to
escape the deadliest aspects
of the continuing drought.” at least
somebody’s taking collective action!

meanwhile,

co2 at record levels (420 ppm),
maugre pandemics & promises
current & future (e.g. cop(out)26)

is this what psychologists call
“diffusion of responsibility”?

no animal products before dinner,
sez jonathan saffron foer. i’ll let him
tell it to the folks in garden city, ks,
where they take the injunction
seriously to "fill the earth and
subdue it. & rule over
the fish in the sea
& the birds in the sky and over
every living creature
that moves on the ground.”
especially steers.

we’re sure not subduing the uptick
in ticks: “they’re having a
good year,” sez the bug expert —
warming temps = longer feeding
season + larger range —
&, w/them, lyme (among the other
many tickborne diseases of the u.s.)

meanwhile,
ice breaks up or melts in arctic,
greenland, antarctic, himalayas &
all the glaciated spaces, it seems
(more on that as we see more
effects on human life over long
hot summers fill the earth

global heating kills 100k humans
every year, “a new study suggests”
(that’s just heat stroke, mind you)

have to find a new narrative —
maybe a new planet — first . . .

heat wave freq. now 3x > 1960s
“in turn, americans are blasting
air conditioners, which has doubled
summer energy use, adding
more greenhouse gases . . .”

human brain not wired for in-
visible disasters, far away, w/
no clear perp doing perp walk

“record flooding in brazil’s amazon”
(while other parts burn)
“half a million displaced”
(as covid kills 1000s brazilians daily —
this is u tomorrow, u.s.a.)

“measured against the risks,
the world’s climate mitigation efforts
are a joke. the unspoken sub-
text of this year’s cop26 conference
is clear to the young:      that we, the
suit-wearing, s.u.v.-driving generation,
will do our best w/in the limits of what
big business can tolerate & what
elderly voters will accept.
we’re prepared
to fail because we
won’t be around to live
with the consequences.”
(paul mason in guardian)

“heat shocks” zap bangladesh
rice crop in n.e., just after
the south got whapped by cyclone —
20% ↓ in production feared, in country
w/ 1 in 4 “food insecure”;

“my dream crop is finished,”
shafiqul islam talukder laments;
"i can't think of how to
support the family for a whole year.
i invested my savings and planted
12 acres of high-yielding rice.
now it's all over.”
(& food prices highest in 10 yrs)

we’ve got to propagate
a happier story: that climate
chaos = better paying jobs, or
that what you’re willing to do
is all that needs to be done, or
what you will

temp records smashed:
british columbia, fresno, calif.,
hong kong, n. finland;
& seems like it’s raining (& flooding)
all over the world: philippines
(tropical storm), chile, guyana,
s.e. texas, coastal louisiana

we’ve got to tell a convincing,
exciting, emotional tale, full of drama,
hearbreak, inspiration, vivid characters;
one that galvanizes folks to believe
what they don’t want to believe
& feel like they have to do
something, now, that they
don’t want to do

anybody got ideas?*

* (totally serious -- leave a comment!)

it’s not about delhi’s coolest june day;
or the flooded fields in the sundarbans;
or the waist-deep water in dhaka;
or 3 mo. of rain in 3 days in new zealand;
or the record flooding in amazonian brazil;
or all the local records & disasters today.

today, it’s about abdul malik abdul ghani.
he’s 33 yrs of age; he lives
in kampung melati, beaufort dist.,
one of the most flood-prone parts
of sabah state, malaysia.   

he does not own a boat.

but it floods so much, he’s strung a rope
from a stilt under his house, 50 m. to
his neighbor’s house on higher ground
(what used to be called “mutual aid”);
so every time it floods, he & the fam
just grab the rope (or swim or
flounder around
until they feel it, underwater).  

he doesn’t own a boat.

the rope “is for us to hold onto so
we don’t get swept away
while wading through the floodwaters”

6k residents of the area evac’d
last wk, escaping the rising rivers (those
not afraid of catching covid), but
not malik — he just reached for his rope!

now, i’m not saying the worsening floods
are due to climate “change” — just sayin
it’s a mighty nice thing to have a rope.
w/ somebody on the other end.

(see freemalaysiatoday.com May 30 for the full story)

10 degrees < avg.
2x the normal rain
some of maple tree’s leaves
show drippy white slime;
another’s, lurid nodules;
feels like 2019 (was that el niño?
or la niña? hard to keep track, what
with all this funny weather);
basil plants already dead;
many trees look dead or dying;
emerald ash borers walk
w/us along the woodland trail

meanwhile:

metro manila ties
its record highest temp (101.5 f)

23 wildfires in w. siberia;
15 of those start over 24 hrs.

c. asia hits the 110s f;
massive dustorms in s. mongolia —
no snow, then no rain —
ask batsaikhan enkheethe, shepherd
buried in sand as he hunkered down:
“it was dark, like the night.
 i thought i would die.”
his brother dug him out the next day;
his sheep were not so lucky: lost 200;
9 sheherds also killed, as dust cloud
made its way down to beijing

meanwhile,

drought deepens in brazil —
worst in 90 yrs: crop failures,
energy shortages, risk of fires in amazon

lake oroville in california < ½ normal level
(drinking water fro 25,000,000 humans)

but after the drought, the deluge
 
it’s getting to where,
if i hear about 100s of people evac’d
in a country of the global north,
it doesn’t really register —
not w/a million + evac’d in e. india
for a single storm: &
237k acres swamped by cyclone yaas;
meanwhile, at least one weather record in
delhi has fallen
in each of the last 10 months
(rain, heat, cold)

. . . & after the deluge, e. australian
farmers face a plague of mice, who’ve
“ravaged crops, gnawed through
farming equip., caused power blackouts
& invaded supermarkets”

with all that, what’s
a little fungus, what’s a few
fewer trees?

spinning straw into gold?
or treading water?  who knows why
i write down all these things,
other than i fell like
somebody has to
(make that “feel” like — typo, sorry)

like the findings published in nature
communications this week:
“we find that the average person
of color lives in a census tract
w/ higher surface urban heat island
intensity than non-hispanic whites
in all but 6 of the 175 largest ur-
banized areas in the continental u.s.;
a similar pattern emerges for people
living in households below
the poverty line relative to those
at more than 2x the poverty line.”
meaning:
if you’re black, brown, or poor,
global heating boils you alive —
true worldwide, not just here . . .

for people in chihuahua state, mx,
that means higher food costs: 90%
crop loss — no water for irrigation;
25 of 31 states in drought; 16 of them
w/drought “in all municipalities”; all
reservoirs < 50%, some < 20
“many people come here,
from guerrero, oaxaca and michoacán
to work in the fields. now
there are no jobs,” sez the lawmaker;
meanwhile, our v. pres. visits
central america, trying to persuade
people to stay put to face
the gangs and the drought
(but don’t come up here!); mean-
while, 1500 guatemalans evac’d
from e. coast (floods) — this as they
still recover from double hurricanes

meanwhile,
chevron, exxon busted by share-
holders; shell, by dutch courts;
maybe maybe maybe . . .

still, people in interior odisha
hunker down under 15” of rain
from cyclone yaas; in w. bengal,
50k humans w/o housing;
1100 villages inundated;
“roads turned into rivers, cars
toppled & half-submerged, people
wade through knee-high water,
huts and small houses
lie crumpled in piles of debris,” &
who doesn’t know the rest . . . ?

meanwhile, yaas sucked moisture
out of the s.e. coast of india,
where temps now push 108 (f)

california wildfires already burned
5x more land than late last may;
siberian wildfire season
up & running
(“siberian wildfire season”?!)

& americans seek treatment for eco-
anxiety & climate depression
(we always seek relief from & for
 our indivdual problems);
indians seek treatment for covid
(some in hurricane shelters)

action the best medicine: vote
yr proxy; badger yr city council;
prep w/neighbors; get naked &
glue yrself to hedge fund hq.’s; or just
write a fucking email to the white house:
whatever it is, i guarantee
you’ll feel better;
but whatever you do, you must
be aware of what is