i’m tired of living
in this science-fiction novel -- tireder than ever before -- of this deadly, mutating pandemic, this attempted fascist putsch, this biggest stock-market bubble of all time & the crumbling economy, these crashing electrical grids, this creeping surveillance capitalism, apartheid police state, and this funny, funny, funny, funny weather . . . these record hi’s across europe, these 25 f below avg. lo’s in russia, those record hi temps w/forest fires in japan; that 80+ f swing in temps in one week here, for that matter, or that saharan dust in scandinavia i’m tired of all the dying bats, more species of bat pushed in smaller and smaller habitats, closer to humans, who pick up their diseases i’m tired of wall street types saying "short of a climate disaster, climate change is a problem, but it’s a slow storm brewing” (not slowly enough for the folks in texas, not to mention mozambique, or peru & brazil, where 1000s of human beings are being evac’d out of flood zones, even as i write) i’m tired of hearing abt the crash in butterfly populations, & if i never hear about glaciers & polar bears again, it will be too soon; sick of hearing all the dire predictions that nobody hears anymore, hearing the u.k. environment minister tell the insurance companies all abt millions being displaced, land becoming unarable or un- inhabitable, abt x-treme weather killing “more people through drought, flooding, wildfires and heatwaves than most wars have,” or how climate chaos will “collapse ecosystems, slash crop yields, take out the infrastructure that our civilisation depends upon, & destroy the basis of the modern economy and modern society.” in fact, i’m really really tired of hearing people like him saying, “if this sounds like science fiction, let me tell you something you need to know: this is that over the last few years the reasonable worst case scenario for flooding we’ve responded to has actually happened, and it’s getting larger. . . . our thinking needs to change faster than the climate. our response needs to match the scale” it sure sounds like science fiction to me -- bad science fiction -- and i’m sick to death of it yeah, i’m tired of this science-fiction story -- i didn’t write it it is not my fantasy & i don’t want it. mind you, i don’t want it to end. i just want it to go away. i just want to go home.
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Ciudad Acuña, Mexico (@zulyveth / Twitter, via Infobae) on february 23, 2021 c.e.,
in the holcom park area of lawrence, kansas, united states of america, the temperature reached +71 f. last week, it dropped to -11. kansas weather — gotta love it! funny . . . weather but mainly, we’re being shifted by degrees: today not so different from yesterday, but way different from 5 years ago, which we don’t remember anymore. 5 yrs from now, we will be used to it, the grid going down, pipes freezing & bursting, sopping the water up again, boiling it if it comes out of the tap; or sifting through the ashes, swearing to rebuild again, just like it was. it will be (is becoming) "normal life." but leave tomorrow’s troubles for tomorrow, as a famous man once said. today has problems enough: more disaster declarations; frozen orange groves; another child drowned as family tries to cross the swollen, chilling rio grande; just south, ciudad acuña blanketed in 9” of snow; record low water temps in gulf of mexico, record hi’s in the arctic seas; all of jackson, mississippi w/o clean water (and my 94 y.o. dad in memphis having to boil his); more flood warnings across u.k.; another round of locusts in kenya & breeding grounds in yemen, somalia, ethiopia off-limits due to war; lakes drying up (not news); forest fires raging in uttarakhand’s hills (with other parts of state sluiced out); record heat in uzbekistan & mongolia; 1400 evac’d from jakarta (more flooding), 4k from belo horizonte, brazil, 12.7k from surigao del sur (philipines) & tomorrow, there will be more. & we’ll be struggling to do our jobs, hustle up a job, raise our families, provide them clean water, & the time will fly by & before you know it things will have changed, changed utterly, & you may not even notice, unless unless you look Athens, Greece, this week. (Getty Images via The Hill) our hi yesterday warmed up
to 28 f (“normal” 46); lo 0 ( norm 24) things are looking up! we’ve got maybe 3” of snow, while my hometown, memphis, got 10, in a city that shuts down when they get 1 . . . & now it’s boil orders for 260k homes; & jackson, miss. totally w/o clean h2o “there has been some research suggesting that arctic warming is weakening the jet stream, which might change the kinds of air that come down to the u.s. does that seem to be happening?” asks the radio dude, & the atmospheric scientist sez: “yeah . . . there are science papers that suggest that that causes a much wavier jet stream pattern w/more hi amplitude waves, if you think back to high school physics.” acropolis covered in snow; several feet in the kremlin; seattle & portland (!) blanketed; snow in places where it doesn’t snow normally: s. lebanon, syria, israel, libya “and so we get these really cold events, but we also get these really warm events during the warm season as well.” (such as 7-8 x more “flash droughts” pre- dicted for india; such that another round of locusts chaws w. queensland up & mosquito-borne illnessses spike in new south wales) “but . . . these things used to happen less frequently. it seems that they’re happening yearly now . . .” & the effects you don’t anticipate: polar temps = power grid strained = rolling blackouts = boil orders & water shortages for 7 m humans; even microchips affected! -- plants near austin tx shut down, adding to global shortage “. . . which is something to keep an eye on.” not to mention the floods floods floods everywhere: this week, mozambique, where rising waters from yet another cyclone cut 27k humans off from help from outside; while yet another cyclone hovers off the coast; even as almost 3” rain pummeled afriski, lesotho in 30 min; & even gainesville, fla. got .55 in five “& because our winters have been so warm, when we do get x-treme cold, it feels that much worse . . .” record cold in latvia record cold in greece lowest windchills ever in kansas city delays in covid vaccines “what if often say these days is hope or waiting & seeing is no longer an acceptable weather risk mitigation plan” 38 dead from u.s. storms so far “& so i wd ask these power companies to build in more resiliency . . . b/c, from a weather perspective, we can pretty much tell you what’s going to happen now” The Bükk Plateau in Hungary was even colder than us. (Hungary Today) it is a poetics of
normal low 23 f / yesterday’s low -23 f it is a poetics of 20 humans dead: car crashes, carbon monoxide poisoning, four in a house fire (from fireplace -- keeping warm during blackout) & three in a tornado . . . plus however many houseless humans end up freezing to death outdoors it is a poetics of rolling blackouts in the “richest country in the world,” leaving millions w/o heat in sub-zero chill, including “warming centers,” of people’s having to warm up in furniture stores, of spoiling vaccines, of things fall apart it is a poetics of snow on the beach in galveston, tx, of -32 on the hungarian plain, of record snows in moscow it is a poetics of unreadiness, of lack of adaptation, lack of mitigation, of things off-kilter, jet-stream wonkiness, of politicians promising returns to “normalcy,” promising “power providers owe you nothing! step up and come up with a game plan. think outside of the box to survive and supply water to your family!” it is a poetics of no one is coming to save you 2/13 hi: 10 f / norm: 45
lo: -1 f / norm: 22 -8 this a.m.; wind chill -26 predicted hi of 0 & lying in bed, my wife sez she doesn’t think it snowed b/c it wd be brighter inside from the reflection & b/c she doesn’t want it to snow; i get up & open the blinds: it’s snowed & it’s snowing; it still isn’t snowing, sez she, b/c i haven’t put my glasses on, so i can’t see it . . . i told her that approach works for climate chaos, too. i don’t want millions of people to go without electricity in arctic cold, or gas pipelines to freeze; i can’t see my home- town covered in ice, shivering; i don’t want half the country under winter weather advisories; i can’t see all the pile-ups in texas, okla., tenn., & ark.; i don’t want to know it’s colder right now in lawrence, kansas than in novosibirsk, siberia (-6 vs. 22 f, btw); i can’t see moscow paralyzed by a record-breaking snow; i don’t want britain & wales to suffer record-breaking cold; i can’t see new glacial lakes forming, ready to break loose & demolish every- thing & -one downstream; & i don’t want the arctic ocean to be record warm, skye & devon to be burning, river thames frozen over, or tornadoes in turkey; i definitely can’t see projections of morocco’s rainfall loss (10-30%); or reports of india’s loss of 8.5% of crop- land due to flood; or drought sereing the southwest u.s. (prepping another blowout wildfire season); or doubling wind-speeds of hurricanes over bermuda; or plant life growing in antarctica -- nuh-uh — not to us -- not here — pull the blinds shut -- go back to bed Ker-pow! Blast crater caused by methane build-up escaping through the thawing Siberian permafrost. (Vasily Bogoyavlensky [Getty Images] via Gizmodo) if huge explosions of methane
from thawing permafrost were making craters 200 ft. across in the siberian landscape, someone might say, “these craters represent an earth system process that was previously unknown to scientists” if drillers in the permian basin were neglecting to burn off excess methane, someone might say that “flaring performance has remained abysmal through the industry’s highs and lows” if 15 new record lows were set in alberta, you might expect to hear somebody call it “unseasonably cold” if the town of braemer, scotland socked in its biggest snowfall in history (2.2ft), you might hear somebody there say “i have driven through over a foot of snow to get to work. it has just been absolutely crazy.” if, meanwhile, the w. isles of scotland were burning, you might expect somebody to say that “vast areas of countryside all over the country are tinder dry and vulnerable” & ask the public to “think twice before using anything involving a naked flame” if winter storm filomena (such a lovely name) really had caused $2.2 b in damage to spain, a catastrophe analyst might opine that “the level of direct and indirect disruption due to extreme freeze or excessive snow- fall can lead to notable commercial & supply chain challenges” if a wall of water & rock from a melting glacier killed 31, left 165 missing, & destroyed 2 hydroelectric projects, & if you were a scientist who had alerted the govt. to the danger, & had warned against building dams up there, you might be tempted to say “they were clearly warned, and yet they went ahead” if the malay peninsula were flooding, no matter how pleasant the temperature, the climate scientist might say “the reason is simple: the earth is getting warmer, with significantly more moisture in the atmosphere. as the atmosphere gets warmer, it can hold more moisture. the intensity of downpours, & therefore the risk of floods, depends in part on how much water the air can hold at a given time” & if, on top of massive flooding, freezing temps & snow also battered france, somebody might say, "i'm very scared, very scared for days now,” & “i can go out on my own but it's my husband, he's very disabled, you see” & if i you see an article on the climate crisis next to a photo of a cute kitten, which do you click? if i told you it was colder in kansas city than denver, chicago, anchorage, or caribou, maine, would you say “o well -- funny weather, huh?” or “yep, better bundle up!” or “how about some of that good ol’ global warming?? haw haw haw”? or “climate change — so awful -- the future is in your hands, kids” or “ugh, i just can’t think about that i have to live my life; i can only hold so much negativity at a given time”? you’d be right. b/c there is no “we” that covers everyone at once, & the invisible hand has always stayed invisible Valley in Uttarakhand flooded by glacial meltwater. (Reuters via Tribune [India]) lawrence f. kansas, u.s.a.,
february 9, 2021: logbook: hi 15 f / norm 44 lo 9 f / norm 21 & that was the warmest day predicted for the week . . . health dept. workers vaccinating people in open-air fairgrounds bldg, while, as of this writing, 2:15 pm, 13 f here & 13 f in anchorage, alaska . . . wonk on, o jetstream, til i end my song . . . of winter weather advisories from abilene, tx. to baltimore in maryland; of 22 cold-weather records busted in three canadian provicnes; & code red over in nederland, trains, trams, & planes stationary; & in scotland, the bookies lower the odds on this winter proving to be the coldest ever there but snow isn’t the only precip falling: just ask the people in the 51 villages in w. kalimantan, indonesia, “submerged” by “unremitting torrential rains”; while in tangier, 24 drowned in under- ground textile sweatshop (illegal one, hidden under a house); 8 dead, 5 missing in mpumalanga, s. africa: “the man insisted he would make it but when he tried to cross, the current washed him away” & in uttarakhand, india, 150 humans still missing, 34 others trapped in a tunnel, after “ice-cold water, mud, rock & debris” came barelling down the valley, when a glacial lake’s icy “dam” gave way elsewhere, not enough water: like s. china, battered by record floods last year, hit by bitter drought, this: s. of yangtze, 50-80% ↓ in rainfall; 330k people facing water shortages; “we never lacked water in winter here before,” sez chen yun “who lives in sanmen” & athens had warmest decade ever (2010s), already 1.5 c > previous avg. & i read all this & wonder why i’m doing this -- so some digital archaeologist digs it up to understand how it all crashed, as tho’ i were some egyptian scribe describing the end of the bronze age? b/c i can’t look away from a train wreck? b/c i don’t know what the hell else to do? funny weather, huh? here at lat: 39.01°n / lon: 95.21°w, it sure is: normal low = 21 f last nite = 7 (wind chill in -2x digits) just some more of that thing we call the polar vortex — what happens when cap o’ cold air over arctic gets all wonky & shifts the jet stream south, bringing the arctic with it; “there is no cause to be alarmed when you hear about the polar vortex,” sez the weather service; but “some are wondering if the wintry impacts barreling down on the u.s. now might become more frequent thanks to climate change,” sez the forbes science writer; some scientists think so, too just be glad you’re not living in a valley in uttarakhand: 19 human beings perished & 200 can’t be found, after a glacial lake broke its bounds, sending a waterfall + landslide down- hill, wiping out a couple dams & power stations as it flowed -- that’s enough drama to get even the u.s. media interested! “it came very fast, there was no time to alert anyone at all,” sez sanjay singh rana, “i felt that even we would be swept away” (weren’t we just talking about this? this “glacial lake” & “ice dam” business?) . . .“this looks very much like a climate change event as the glaciers are melting due to global warming,” sez the u.n. scientist; & i guess you have to have a ph.d. in science to figure that one out . . . heat —> ice —> melting —> water —> lotsa water —> flood & o yeah himalayan glaciers are going to decrease by ⅓ even if everybody starts living like the amish from here on out; — ⅔ if we keep living the way we do . . . & the 100s of millions who rely on water from the glaciers every year may not — at all -- if they melt that fast: just a lot more sudden dam bursts, instant waterfalls & avalanches then there’s the glaciers at the poles (or that were at the poles): “i told my friends in the united states, that the refugees would not only be coming from mexico and c. america, but also from florida & the atlantic coast,” sez the icelandic geologist -- something to ponder if you live near 39.01° n / 95.21° w & dig this: there is a publication called “flood list” that covers nothing but floods! there’s plenty of flooding to cover: n.e. s. africa (while the s.w. stays bedroughted); all over indonesia; france, germany . . . but: hottest-ever jan. in s. india; heat wave from sahara for armenia; & california rainy season starts 1 month later than when i was a kid . . . too many flash-forwards; too much time-lapse photography, befores and afters: nobody will ever make a movie out of this Living room in Labasa, Fiji, after cyclone Ana last weekend. (Supplied: Ami Kohli, via ABC) good evening, mr. & mrs. america
& everyone at sea -- let’s go to press! item: 9 dead of avalanches in wake of winter storm orlena in 4 u.s. states . . . item: 40-vehicle pile-up on i-80 in c. iowa features “a dozen overturned & jackknifed semis,” courtesy of orleana’s little sister, winter storm peggy . . . meanwhile, back east, “it’s the storm of the century,” sez snowplow operator of 30 yrs. james carew; we say: hang on, mr. carew, we have 80 years to go -- & things could get messier . . . flash: we have just received word that morris, co., n.j. reports 35.1” of snow on the ground -- if confirmed, that snows under the previous record from 1899 . . . item: worst winter for flooding ever seen in britain, experts say impossible w/o climate change; now p.m. johnson wants to open a new coal mine in cumbria . . . flash (flood): in 18 french de- party-ments, relentless rain crashed the party yesterday, busting banks & swamping towns; while back in gay paree, “the affair of the century”: a court rules the government failed to follow the paris climate accords, ruling “ecological damage” means euros for the plaintiffs. “no more blah blah,” sez the head of greenpeace france . . . speaking of floods, botswana’s capital deluged; & more massive inundations & landslides in indonesia: sumatra, java, kalimantan, sulawesi, & on the malay peninsula; meanwhile, bolivia gets slammed: 8 dead, 30k families affected so far, over 6k losing homes, crops, property; ditto in cordillera dept., paraguay, described as “literalmente destrozada”; & as if they didn’t have trouble enough, now glaciers in the andes are melting into glacial lakes, dammed by ice that’s also melting; when it does, floodwaters rage down the valleys & over the villages . . . & this from the drought department: anatolia, morocco, western cape, madagascar, e. australia, & w. u.s. are still in it, costing jobs & lives o.k., america! & everywhere else: stay tuned . . . The other Lawrence (Mass.) yesterday. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, via Weather Channel) driving down hiway one
through big sur, misty folds of cliffs, yellow broom in bloom, seals & otters maybe a martini at nepenthe that was early 90s -- big sur burned a lot since then; a lot of land sluiced over the road or into the sea. but now the road has crumbled & made a new ravine: all that water blasting charred ground with nothing alive to hold it in place -- thus do our past places disappear while nowadays, all the storms have names -- it’s not just for hurricanes anymore: like winter storm orlena (“orleana”?), which clobbered n.e. u.s.: trains stopped, flights grounded, hiways closed: “one of the most impact- ful statewide storms we’ve had in a long time,” the penn. hiway official sez; feetsworth of snow (& my cousin’s mutt ecstatically diving through about 16 inches of “white stuff” in n.y.c.); massive waves crash over rooftops & seawalls & up into towns all along the coast; & in austin, temps near 80f, then “enough snow to make a snowman,” all in one week. another polar vortex. mean- while, warmest ever nov, dec, jan in winnipeg; 2nd warmest winter in portland, or.; valencia went from 15 degrees & heavy snow to 80 f & forest fires, all in january & australia is starting to burn again, 28 sq. mi. near perth; 59 homes in- cinerated; strong winds mean fire-lines hard to hold . . . "it’s too late to leave and leaving now would be deadly you must shelter before the fire arrives the extreme heat will kill you well before the flames reach you if your home catches fire & conditions inside become unbearable you need to get out and go to an area that has already been burnt,” sez the emergency alert; so much for “lockdown” . . . 494 arizonans died of heat last yr; while lake mead keeps retreating but torrential rain & flashfloods for n.e. greece & anatolia fiji gets second cyclone in 2 mo.; 10k humans evac’d & punxsutawney phil, the crypto- pagan groundhog, looked into his crystal ball & said we’re in for another 500 years of funny weather. at least. |
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June 2021
Kristin Prevallet Author/Editor
I'm a writer & teacher in Lawrence, Kansas who actually believes the scientists. I wrote a book of poems called Of Some Sky that seems to have something to do with all this. |