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
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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. |