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Northwest of Sydney. (Lukas Coch/AP, via NPR) why do i do this to myself?
i mean, i appreciate the people, all three of them, who read this verse-chronicle regularly (thanks, readers!) — but what does it accomplish? i feel guilty writing, publishing, teaching climate-crisis-related stuff: it just makes people depressed (more depressed), so nobody wants to hear about it me to climate-poet friend: “what is to be done?” -- thinking they’d have a political- social-economic strategy for climate insurgencies; but the answer was: “be kind to one another” maybe that’s always been the way it is: advances, revolutions, brand new brilliant ideas all led to this. happy enlightenment, y’all. maybe at some level people know this, just want to be made comfortable, enjoy what they can of life while they can but not a lot of enjoyment happening for most of the world. such as eastern australia: n.s.w. rich in rain — six months’ worth in one week (like, 3 feet’s worth, so far) -- 40 k humans displaced; livestock spooked or drowned: “it’s the helplessness of hearing them bellowing because they are obviously stressed, they are very panicked, and you cannot get to them to do anything for them,” sez the farmer; “that’s the real heartbreaking thing. the loss is the loss, and as hard as that is to cope with it’s the helplessness and not being able to do anything.” stressed, panicked, heartbreakingly helpless mammals, four feet or two -- we’ve heard it all before dam overtopped near sydney dropping as much water as water in sydney bay, every day; neighborhoods submerged, only roofs remain to see, towns “cut off”; roads damaged, schools closed, telecommunications, water rescues, not over yet the “floodproof” new windsor bridge, underwater; “people that have lived lifelong have never seen some of those kinds of rainfall,” sez the govt. man, aptly if not well first the brushfires now this — and it’s not even one of those “sh*thole countries” as someone once called them but only two deaths . . . maybe things aren’t becoming more deadly, just more exciting . . . writers like “exciting,” right? plus, somebody has to record the important stuff everyone else looks away from. i reckon . . . happy spring!
and happy world water day! here in the missouri river basin, we had three straight yrs. of flood; now, finally . . . we’re in a drought. but then, so is half the u.s. “deluge-and-drought”; repeat. unicef sez 20 yrs from now, 1 in 4 kids will live in places w/ “extreme water stress” (that’ll be 600 m kids, by then); & m.i.t. scientists predict 52% of humans will live in “water-stressed regions” by 2050 (will that be within your lifetime, reader?), meaning over 5 b persons, by then. but then 2 billion don’t have clean water today (incl. 2 m in the u.s. of a.). & we have — what? -- like 8 years and 9 months to save the earth, at this point? (i can’t recall when it was we still had 10) there’s a plan in california (there’s always a plan in calif.) for the state to buy up seaside property, then rent it back to owners until it becomes uninhabitable due to sea-level rise not a bad idea; but they won't do it; people want to believe what they want to believe, want to believe we’ll fix it all, so we don’t have to worry about what happens if we don’t. my clear filtered water in my clear clean glass Funny . . . it doesn't look like a bomb. Sweden's Stordalen Mire (Moira Hough/Nature) i can’t show you gods & goddesses
i won’t pretend to transcribe the speech of heroic warriors or wily greeks this is a chronicle, not an epic: there’s only just us & the facts like: from 2008-18, the u.s. west had the 2nd driest 19 yrs. out of the last 1,200 they say facts are “dry,” & that’s the driest fact imaginable the government of new mexico urges farmers not to plant crops (colorado r. a mere trickle) & the series of droughts in europe since 2014 are the worst in 2,000 yrs (they counted the tree rings in beams in roman buildings & checked the isotopes, etc.) & 80% of crops worldwide fed by rain . . . moreover sez the red cross, “the vast majority of internal dis- placements are now triggered by climate change” -- 10,300,000 or so in last 6 months -- “people barely have time to recover & they’re slammed w/another disaster” no single combats or catalogs of ships here — just desperate humans looking for someplace to go, each with a family, each with a name, floating on whatever boat they can get meanwhile scientists worry the permafrost thaw will lead to an “epic feast for bacteria and archaea that produce co2 & methane” (a “carbon bomb,” they call it) but i can’t pass down any other epic, with or w/o feasts speaking of feasts: chinese beef imports ↑ 76% last year = there goes the rainforest that’s epic or counts as the closest thing we have to one "Finally! A photo of something pleasant!" Cherry season in Tokyo. (SoraNews 24) “i can’t be asked,”
said the irishwoman. “that means ‘i can’t be bothered.’” as in “i can’t be asked -- I have troubles enough of my own!” wch is not to say we don’t care abt the 90% ↑ of kenyan people in need of immediate aid (1.4 m) due to “poor performance” by the rainfall season (i.e., drought), or the 2.7 m somali people in the same high-and-dry boat, w/sub-par rainy season predicted it just means we’ve got things to tend to ourselves like the entire u.s. power grid -- the am. soc. of civil engineers sez it’s vulnerable to weather shocks like that seen in texas last month (one report says 57 dead, another, 80); much of that infrastructure is older than i am (!), w/a lot more people using it now; & fossil fuels still = 62% of electric production (they being most vulnerable to being freezing frozen froze) but tomorrow will worry abt itself; today’s troubles enough for now, as the good book sez whc is helpful, depending on how you define “today” -- e.g., last weekend: sandstorms engulfed mecca & medina, making them look like — well, someplace hot and red — & china, too: beijing a.q.i. at 999 (elsewhere “off the scale”), & all across mongolia, from west to east & from arabia to ulan bator everyone sez, “i’ve never seen anything like it” but “i can’t be asked b/c i’m not them & don’t live there not that i don’t feel for them, of course, but it can’t happen here” record temps in mexico, s.e., esp.: up to 113 f; & the gov. of jalisco sez: “the dam that supplies the north of guadalajara is total- mente seca (dry), it no longer gives us even a drop of water” (“why do all those people keep coming to the border??”) but some good global heating news: the cherry-blossom season in tokyo started march 14 -- earliest on record -- that is something beautiful so we look at it & the kitten videos so it lightens our day but the poor ye have always with ye so there’s plenty of time to deal with it, tomorrow or tomorrow, but today we can’t be asked In Peru on Thursday (El Expreso) beware the tides of march --
maybe higher than yer used to . . . or flash floods — flood watch chez nous, as deluge em- pluviates us after almost nothin this month. but that’s . . . nothin: south america washes away: in peru, constant rains “destruyen casas y carreteras” — 7k humans affected, 2500 “daminifcadas” (harmed, damaged, victimized, if not quite con-damned); el oro province, ecaudor: “a great quantity of mud and rocks swept into the streets of chilla, caving in some sections of the sewer system”; storms pummel n. bolivia, swelling 3 major rivers — roads impassable, military saving people & livestock, 2500 families affected; & landslides kill 2 humans in colombia, amidst massive overflowings ("seems like kind of a big deal -- funny the news outlets here are not covering it . . .") even as rivers of rain scour windward oahu, damaging water systems, so (paradoxically) water everywhere, nor any drop to drink (well, almost: “we have a big tank but the tank is getting down to the bottom”); boil orders, etc. -- part of system punishing the state: on kauai’s n. shore, citizens start a ferry service across the river when a mudslide slathered the road ("funny weather over yonder in hi- warrior; glad it ain’t happening here") & winter storm xylia (xylia?) closes interstate hiways, grounds 1000s of planes, whacks power for 43k customers across the rockies, while spawning tornadoes in texas but the disaster is just the beginning of the disaster — then there’s the re- covery: 1.8 m nicaraguans desperately need aid, ½ m w/o clean water or sanitation, 4 mo. after eta and iota smashed into the caribbean coast; & 2 m humans still in urgent need of humanitarian . . . anything . . . 2 yrs after idai & kenneth massacred hundreds & scourged the mozambiquan coast, not long after this yer verse-chronicle got going ("why doesn’t someone do something? someone who’s in charge . . . ") & of course there’s fire: “n. thailand is choking on toxic air” as its hills & mountains are ablaze w/ forest fires” = “hazardous” a.q.i.; while “millions of trees were burnt to ashes” in pakistani punjab, as fire “stretched around 5000 km-long terrain” (~3k mi) ("this is maybe getting serious . . . ") plus dry & hot: “megadrought” parches 77% of western u.s.; central queensland growers losing > 1 m dollars, as other parts of state get drenched; meanwhile, record hi’s in boston & new england & i forgot to mention: amazon rainforest net contributor (probably) to global heating, sez study by 30 scientists sponsored by natl. geo ("well what do you know about that . . .you learn something new every day!") On the road/river, down-valley in Maui. (Maggie T. Sutrov via NPR via Reuters) march 10, 2021, douglas co.,
kansas, united states: hi: 77 f / norm 54 f lo: 63 f / norm 30 f flowers starting to bloom (contra naturam, around here) buzzards showing up already but now, it’s fixing to rain, finally — for 3 days straight, they say. they say the ground’s so dry, it’ll soak right up . . . unlike hawai’i: emergency declaration, dam overtopped in maui, 4k humans flee as water, mud, rock, sluices down valley “the climate crisis is causing changes to hawaii’s rainfall patterns, according to scientists, with overall levels falling but downpours becoming more extreme, when they do arrive. the state is also vulnerable to rising sea levels and more intense storms, which bring flooding and saltwater inundation of freshwater supplies,” sez the guardian sez the mayor of honolulu: “we need to get used to climate events like this”; sez my friend in oahu: “big thunder & civil defense noises again.” mean- while, in papua: "the nearly 1-mo.-long flood has caused plants to die. the local people had earlier predicted the flood would last 2 to 3 days,” sez the govt. man; losses: 1289 homes 6064 semi-finished homes (i.e., owners too poor to finish them all at once) 417 acres of “plantations” 145 fish ponds 17 wood bridges, & 63 pigs, washed away (that may sound funny, like small potatoes, but not if body & soul are hanging to- gether by 1 soggy thread) minneapolis, minnesota: feb. 14: -19 f mar. 9: +62 f (record); record hi’s from chicago across the plains & asia’s 2nd-largest biosphere preserve, the simlipal tiger re- serve in odisha, is about ½ burned up, by now. & o that drought in taiwan? & that freeze in texas? = semiconductor shortage (the stuff you just don’t think of . . .) meanwhile, mudslide in so. cal., wildfire in patagonia, flooding in guayaquil, ecuador, plague of locusts plagues e. africa still; &c.; & now it turns out heat kills trees and heat prevents seedlings’ survival, so forests refuse to regrow & now it turns out those algal blooms growing apace? i.e., cyanobacteria? yup: methane producer -- another day, another positive feedback loop & food prices continue going ↑↑↑ & i won’t tell you what’s happening to the animals; & i won’t tell you what’s happening to the ice (or what it means); b/c i'm jest gonna stick my li'l ol' thumbs in my li'l ol' ears and go lalalalalalala lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala lalalalalalalalalalala lalalalalalala lalalalala la in the film the turin horse, a
constant windstorm whistles & howls (we viewers suspect it is the end of the world); but our windstorms feature a low roar — like airplane engines at a distance; sometimes, it roars loudly wind advisory; red-flag warning; burn ban; gusts up to 50 mph 3/9 hi: 77 f / norm 54 3/9 lo: 52 f / norm 30 upper midwest feels may temps in march elsewhere the major reservoir at 6% capacity in the area of nelson mandela bay, eastern cape, s. africa, lowest ever; water outages; no rainfall in sight taiwan faces severe shortage of h2o: reservoirs under 50%, some less than 20 another life-threatening drought in store for somaliland: “water availability has dwindled to nothing in many areas. grazing has long gone. food and fodder security has dissipated for both human and livestock populations,” sez the govt. minister this is just what’s happening “locally” -- don’t get me started on flooded superfund sites or sea-level rise in populated areas (4 x faster than elsewhere) or the 70% of latin-american hospitals vulnerable to flood & hurricane & please don’t talk to me about the tropics — where ½ earth’s population will live by 2050 -- which, sez new report in nature geo- science, if the avg. world temp rises > 1.5 c, will become virtually uninhabitable i don’t like the sound of that “uninhabitable,” that sound of a distant roar (photo Bloomberg via Salaam Gateway) here in lawrence f. kansas, usa,
temps this weekend ran 14 degrees > that nostalgic “normal,” w/punishing winds: red-flag warning, 20 mph w/30 mph gusts . . . it’s a windy state, but seems to me like hi winds are coming oftener but remember how siberia was melting under record hi’s last summer? well, now the frozen north is frozen over again — so much so reindeer can’t nuzzle through the ice to eat the lichen: local herders reckon 60k+ have died soybean futures ↑ 55% over last yr: drought in argentina downpours in brazil — rotting or burning beans (watch out, meateaters, yr food bill’s gonna go up) the words for the week are heat & drought: record march hi for u.a.e. (106 f); new mexico’s worst drought on record: hi winds' sublimating snowpack = less rio grande downstream; “i feel guilty for encouraging my son to be a farmer” sez glen duggins while in c. & n. taiwan, 1.34m households’ water pressure deliberately lowered: not a shortage of power but a shortage of water & in n. africa, another drought (tunisian crop yields ↓35% last year) -- tunisian govt. asks citizens to make “recourse to god almighty with supplication” -- a climate adaptation policy at least as good as ours “i just read the future,” sez kassandra, “you decide what to do with it.” me, i stick to the present, to what is really happening now maybe someone will connect the two. inshallah. Boiling water in Houston (via CNN) things have been getting back to
normal: co2 emissions have bounced back: ↑ 2% in dec. from a year before, accompanied by the usual stern warnings from global big- shots; but at some point, the govt.’s are going to have to say: “you know that paris accord stuff? well, it was all bullshit. we had no intention of slowing down economic output to cut emissions. sorry!” meanwhile, weather here reminds me of weather the first week of march during my youth in memphis: spring was springing the first week in march, crocuses, etc. -- only, we are > 3˚ n. of memphis hi y’day 64 f / norm 51 & that “norm” keeps changing; can we please go back? 200 records tied or set in the plains during arctic blast — & blackouts: 390k texans under “boil orders” as of mon., state’s largest coop now gone bust (is this what they mean by “breakdown”?) appalachia inundated: “it was like a river coming through. it was washing off of mountains, it was coming, there was no stopping it. it was just awful. water going up in the houses. people up on roofs,” sez kentucky evacuee pamela gross; “we don’t do too much training on this water rescue,” firefighter eddie stacy sez; “instinct, it just kicks in. it was god, i tell you. It was god to have me in that place where i was supposed to be” to save the 5 human beings in the sinking car & god will bring the tribulation before the millennium, so we are just helping it all along elsewhere, a cafe w/a kitchen on wheels; flagstone living-room floors; ovens waist-hi; dual circuits in upstairs, downstairs: the brits are coping w/the era of flooding (expect 59% ↑ in rainfall over next 30 yrs, brits) -- except most of them, who live in “flood poverty” & can’t afford to fixer upper meanwhile the southernmost town on earth, puerto williams in tierra del fuego, recorded its highest temp ever: 79 f down there next to antarctica all of which makes me say, “where are the snows of yesteryear?” is this what they mean by “solastalgia,” this wanting the temperatures, the dry & wet, the seasons, the animals, the predictable life, the normal you had before, but don't, any more? |
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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. |