No, not Kansas -- Mongolia, this time. (KFUV-FM) 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?
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What do you do when it's too hot to live where you are? You go north. (via Mexico News Daily) 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 Disaster workers in West Bengal yesterday. (Rupak de Chowdhuri/Reuters via Guardian) “internal displacement monitoring center
may i help you?” actually, there is such a place; and if you called, they’ll tell you that 55 million humans were internally displaced last year; more & more by storms & floods no surprise: ⅓ of guatemala prone to floods & mud- slides: almost 20k people affected this year alone; 71 chinese rivers already passed “warning levels” -- w/summer flooding season not even arrived last week, cyclone tauktae killed 155 humans in w. india; another week, another cyclone, this time in the east: > 1,200,000 human beings evac’d from low-lying grounds before cyclone yaas hit the coast w/95 mph winds, pounding rain, broken cables & uprooted trees; 20k mud huts & houses damaged or collapsed, 10m humans affected; tornado snaps power lines: 2 people electrocuted; trains cancelled; 6.5” rained overnight in parts of odisha; 200 bangladeshi villages inundated & if it's not the water, it's the fire: india issues twice the forest fire alerts april 1-14 as last year; moscow & st. petersburg went from snow to 90s f in 10 days; but if you think that’s hot . . . go to quatar, which just hit its may heat record: 118.6 f; but it’s not the heat, it’s — well, o.k.: it’s the heat: places getting uninhabitable, even as the s.w. u.s. desert desertifies more: “we have never seen drought at the scale and intensity that we see right now, and it is possible that this may be the baseline for the future,” sez the interior dept. official & if that weren’t enough, here’s something new: “sea snot” -- a swirling, viscous beige muck blanketing the surface of the sea around istambul; phytoplankton cause it; e coli infests it; & global heating spreads it; meaning, no fishing for you, fisher-folk, because no fish i, joseph, testify to everything i saw in the news feed & herewith chronicle for the future & attest that few in lawrence, kansas, usa were panicking: blue sky, light winds, mild temps: why worry? Sun Moon Lake, Central Taiwan. (AP via Telegraph) heat wave in the s.e.;
already in 90s in n.y.c.; cooler in the west; in between, the jet stream keeps jetting water up the middle of the country, onto us . . . shades of 2019, the soggy spring that spawned this yer verse-chronicle; so, cool humidity: the highs are low the lows are high still — on the gulf, where the precip train leaves the station fully fueled, the rivers keep rising & the people keep needing rescues; new orleans rain ↑ 333%; + wettest may ever in victoria, tx (18.4”), & it ain’t over yet & all that in the least-affected parts of the world 103.5 f in dagestan — so (if you believe dagestan is part of russia) russia just had its highest spring temp ever; hottest day in may ever in hong kong (96.8 f); yuanjiang, yunnan hottest ever temp (111.4); hottest may temp on record for s. japan islands (92.5); but wettest day in may for honshu (11.4” in 24 hrs, in places) rolling blackouts in tehran: drought, rising temps, & crypto-currency mining (those bitcoin blockchains take a lot of power to empower — but people do what they must to survive) & taiwan is trucking in water -- to semiconductor makers, not farmers -- during its worst drought ever (first things first); “we had no choice but to stop planting for this season,” sez farmer ho wan-chin; & 2 days per week w/o tap water, in some parts hell, it’s not even raining in portland! 21 marathoners dead in n. china, as temps suddenly drop, hail pounds, roads iced, winds accelerated 5k humans evac’d in e. malaysa -- floods push them out — while in brazil, 100k affected by flooding near manaus but look, i’m not being doomy — just sayin what’s going on; maybe it has to do w/the climate emergency, maybe not: you decide; but “once you know it you can’t unknow it”; maybe you have to “do something” or maybe you have to write it down you know how they always say
you can’t say what damage is directly caused by climate change? well, i see in the paper where some scientists have tried to do it: how much less wd superstorm sandy have cost, w/o the wacky climate? ~$8.1b, they figure; & 17k fewer people affected. well, new york city is doing something about the weather: they’re spending $1½ b for 2½ mi. of flood walls, flood gates, &c. along the east river bank; plus which, they’re razing a park in order to raise it 8-10 ft., by dumping more dirt on top; all of which is great, if you’re manhattan meanwhile, cyclone tauktae kills 91 so far -- strongest storm ever hits indian w. coast, sez c.n.n. -- right in the middle of pandemic surge the arctic marge of the barents sea clocks higher temp than beaches in s. of france, sez the meteorologist; while siberian zombie fires rise from the dead & grow meanwhile, 17 greek villages evac’d as smoke paints athens’ sky orange from burning pine forest (8 sq mi worth); & business insurance magazine reports on a dam break in slovakia (they got the actuaries) another 5k humans displaced as lake tanganyika rises again; 30k displaced since jan 1 alls i can say is all these places had better start building sea-walls and fire-walls and heat-walls, ‘cause the funny weather just keeps coming, huh? this week, our gov. declared a state
of emergency in 9 counties; one town’s mayor called the floods worse than the “big one” in 1993 here, farther east, waves of rain -- highs normal; lows 10 f > (that dern humidity -- it’s not the anthropocene, it’s the humidicene -- more heat = more evap) meanwhile: big one in w. india: cyclone tauktae rips loose oil barges from moorings: 81 humans unaccounted for; 160 roads in gujurat destroyed, 40k trees uprooted; 200k human beings evac’d (200,000) . . . ; winds 130 mph; swells, 25 ft; Mumbai spared direct hit, but 8.43” rain in 12 hrs (wettest day ever in may); the arabian sea had maybe 2 weak cyclones/year — until now "now what is happening — the arabian sea temperatures, the ocean's surface temperatures -- are warming rapidly,” sez the climate scientist; & the seas absorb most of the heat; & when they're full . . . & in lake charles, louisiana, another 100-year flood this year: 12-15” rain in 12 hrs. monday; mayor sez: “you know, eventually you do kind of get to a point where you ask mother nature: what more can you do to us?” mother nature: “plenty, bub.” taiwan in worst drought ever: chipmakers asked to cut water use by 17%; they’re pumping wells now — reservoirs < 5% & in n. california, produce farmers stop planting produce: < 5% usual water supply; “calif. grows ⅓ of the country’s vegetables and ⅔ of the country’s fruits and nuts,” bloomberg sez helpfully. if dry weather hampers the produce powerhouse, that could add to the food inflation that’s already starting to grip the u.s. post-pandemic economy.” & gripping the world-wide during- climate-chaos economy, one might add . . . in s.w. siberia, 148k acres aflame; temps in 90s f expected (moscow already there; our highs still in the 70s) more serious for us u.s.americans: coffee supply at risk! see, brazil’s ag heartland had a rainless rainy season, & they’re the largest exporter, so . . . (meanwhile, amazon rises near manaus to “near record levels”) (& even new jersey has wildfires: 1000 acres on fire at j. shore on mon.) & then there’s this: susidence. “hotter and drier summers being driven by global heating mean the ground under houses will shrink and crack” in s.e. england, say the scientists; “the clay formations underlying them are most vulnerable to losing moisture”; here, in another clayey region, we’re used to hairline cracks & slightly wompy floors. “it’s advisable for those living in an area showing an increased susceptibility under future climate conditions to seek specialist advice before starting any major building work,” the geological engineer drily states this, just as realtors push our city to expand the city limits to build “affordable” housing; 2.4 m homes will sink in england by 2030; £3bn in losses over last decade the stuff you don’t think about, the stuff you don’t want to think about summery march;
chilly, sodden may; but it’s getting back to “normal” (new normal or old?), meaning it will be scorching in a week or so kind of an analogy for the last 100 yrs: blue states turned red: read all about it! that’s right: n.a.s.a. paints the country red — dark red: every 10 yrs, the maps come out showing the averages for the last 30; for most of my life, the country stayed half-blue (below avg.), half-red (above); since 1990, it’s like somebody left the u.s. on the griddle too long, it’s all charring around the edges until its burnt in the middle, so you’ll have to throw it away and cook a new burger 'cause even a few degrees can totally f*ck up yr cookout, make the burgers more expensive, wash out yr beach (& the majority of atmospheric co2 released since 1990) precip map the other way round: bluer and bluer (well, teal, really): the greater missouri-mississippi basin like a funnel for a ton of runoff, sluicing down to the gulf meanwhile, 14 villages in west aceh, indonesia submerged; & jakarta declared “world’s most environmentally vulnerable city,” by u.k. business risk experts (it can always be worse) tornado in wuhan kills 8; local posts on weibo: “i’ve lived in wuhan all my life & [say it with me] i’ve never seen anything like it. there’s been so much extreme weather lately.” funny, huh? 68 f > normal in n.w. russia; siberian wildfire season underway this weekend saw opening day of california wildfire season, too: 1325 acres of w. los angeles co. scorched as of 1:30 p.m. yesterday (0% containment); meanwhile, irrigation water shut off for farmers around the california-oregon line (forget about the salmon & wetlands) & soon the summer will begin. here in the u.s.a., it will be memorial day, start of the endless summer, & no one will be allowed to wear white shoes again or ruby slippers, ‘cause no matter how often you say it, this is it: there’s no more home to get to Sunset over Indian Ocean, showing layers of atmosphere (which are changing in width). (NASA via The Guardian) first-ever “alert phase” in iceland --
what in these parts we call a “red-flag warning”: outdoor burning prohibited -- due to the wildfires & dry conditions & a man in finland tweet-reports 82.6 f in oulu, just s. or arctic circle -- earliest-ever temp that hi in country; while in russia, a polar bear schlepped 300 mi. s. of arctic circle, wandered around village, ate dog food, slept in backyards; “villagers were advised to keep their children at home” floods hammer w. africa, clobbering uganda, rwanda, kenya, somalia: 100s homeless, bridges broken, crops ruined; in c. african republic electrical towers collapse in storms, leaving the capital, bangui, w/o electricity for weeks, disrupting water supply (bad time to cut off the water to hospitals) & did you know the stratosphere is shrinking? yep. 400 m since 1980s; prediction of another 1 km by 2080. culprit? yep. greenhouse gases. first we shift the earth’s axis; now this. it may disrupt satellite communication, including yr g.p.s. . . . so if you're tired of being called a chicken-little, just tell 'em "the sky is shrinking! the sky is shrinking!" California Gov. Gavin Newsom extends drought emergency to 41 of state's 58 counties, in news conference at bottom of San Luis Reservoir in the Central Valley. (AP via WeatherBug) early may
& california’s gov. declares drought emergency for ⅓ of state’s population ¼ of world’s cities can’t afford climate protection plans (guardian) maybe the pandemic-lockdown helped us practice for even worse remember hurricane zeta? last oct. 28? no? well, it played hell with s.e. louisiana. turns out it was the latest major hurricane ever to make landfall in the u.s. (a cat 3), which wouldn’t be significant except for all the other early & late major hurricanes we’re having (funny weather, huh?) japanese insurers shell out $3.2 b: damage from cyclone haishen + jan. snowstorm while 15k people in e. timor still w/out help, 3k still homeless, after storms a month ago; 25 humans dead in somalia this week b/c of punishing rains; 7 dead in sumatra landslide; 6 more in afghanistan; + heavy flooding in dushambe, capital of tajikistan (“whatistan? humph — never heard of it!”) wildfires in manitoba wildfires & drought in iceland (iceland??); 766 acres torched in kazakhstan; record hi temps in new zealand; brazil’s corn crop shrivels up -- but good news: la niña means 2021 probably won’t be a hottest-ever year — tho, as axios points out, “lack of a new warmest year record in 2021 could sap some of the sense of urgency among policymakers” see, you gotta make it bigger & stronger & faster & worser than ever, if you wanna keep people’s attention. #5 or #10 hottest year? forget it. they’ll be too wrapped up in fixing this hurricane disaster here, that famine there, & the big, pervasive, looming, invisible disaster spreads unnoticed, like a virus, b/c it’s not something you can put under a microscope, it’s not something people can agree on, so i guess we’ll just have to disagree to disagree, but i still feel compelled to write these things b/c these things are happening even though i don’t agree Pastoral scene, c. 55,000,000 BCE, Antarctica. (Aldo Chiappe - Natl. Geographic, via paleocast.com) “just what do you think you’re doing??”
“eatin’ pizza. learnin’ about the paleocene-eocene thermal maximum. “only ↑ 5 c during a ‘geologic blip’ (20k yrs), when spewed forth 2,000-10,00 gigatons of carbon: meant crocodiles at the poles, no ice anywhere (combusting fossilized carbon spewed 1000 gigtons of co2 into the air & sea since 1920s; on track for another 1,000 by 2100) & the ‘natural system took 100k yrs for all that carbon to be taken out through normal processes’ last time around (~55m yrs ago). “moral: there’s always been climate change! back then, they didn’t have any sea ice at the poles. they didn't need any! . . . & here we are today!” it was very good for mammals, apparently -- primates not least -- more hot, humid territory to invade . . . fast forward 55ish million yrs: funny weather, huh? 4 big wildfires in c. arizona: the biggest, 3500 acres more floating cars — this time c. mexico, n.w. colombia, nairobi, guizhou; n. angola flooded out, too: 4k made homeless this past weekend (no floating cars in evidence, but a big-ass truck foundering from a road collapse); death toll from afghan flooding at 78 1m “face starvation” in madagascar, as drought worsens; reservoirs in c. & s. taiwan < 5% cap. earliest tropical storm ever just swirled into life in e. pacific; while family handyman magazine advises on “how to use & when to replace roof tarps” — news you can (will) use! news that stays news, at least for an eon or two |
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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. |