all the drama from
the climate marches dying down, but our weather map looks like a yin-yang of blue & red: froze in the west & north, burnt up in the east & south: another wonky jet stream season – proved wonky in the southern hemi- sphere, too, in their winter (summer here). austin, memphis & 48 other locales sweat through hottest sept. ever (> july); nola, nashville, pensacola, mobile had hottest oct. day (all over 95 f); much of fla. shriveled in driest sept. ever; singapore had hottest and driest sept. ever (ditto perth); s.w. u.s.“nonsoon” season driest ever; 90s & 100s in s.w. australia; water shortages in alaska the endless summer continues . . . but single-digits in montana, 200-yr storm pummels minnesota and wisconsin . . . maybe long-term nothing will change, we think. maybe once we get through this everything will be better, we think. maybe i’ll be dead when it gets bad – i mean, really really bad . . . “the kind of societal transformation we need only comes when not just thousands, but millions of people take to the streets to demand it – and not just once, but again and again,” sez varshini prakash of sunrise. she’s right, of course: that’s the good news & the bad news. we need people to make it their business to raise hell; people who possess the time (money) & energy to do that other news: bahamas ripped to shreds, a no-one’s-land; lorenzo, “most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the far east atlantic,” weakens as it heads toward u.k., eire – just more rain rain rain – like in pakistan, where floods keep coming & killing (> 400 casualties since july); ditto bihar & uttar pradesh (> 100 dead this week); tropical storm narda strews damage across 1k mi. mexican pacific coast but axios reports “greta thurnberg’s protests give climate change most attention it has had all year” – all year! 9 whole months! so i’ll go to the city commission candidates’ forum on “environment & climate” tonite, maybe ask questions abt what we’ll do abt infrastructure breakdown increased food insecurity rise of heat-related illnesses housing displaced persons, but i’m not hopeful: it’s “too big a fail” – can’t cope or don’t feel it getting nearer, closing in, touching you, wiping out your money, turning yr little kansas city into abaco – and hey – maybe we’ll be okay, maybe ride it out, maybe
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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. |