Boston is headed toward another summer of record-breaking heat.
Four of the five hottest summers [in the US] have now occurred since 2011. The summers of 2021 and 1936 hold the first- and second-place rankings, followed by 2012, 2011 and 2020, respectively. Fox29Philadelphia
One of the most on-point novels about the climate crisis that I’ve read is The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Okay, I haven’t read all that many novels on the topic, but here’s why this one is so good. It plausibly and with a lot of detail imagines how rising temperatures will impact us and it plausibly and with a lot of detail posits the solutions.
Of course the solutions are only plausible if climate deniers are removed from power and an extraordinary and unprecedented cooperation occurs across the globe. Maybe far-fetched then?
It’s long and not every reader will want to invest the time. Luckily there are two articles in The New Yorker that might appeal to you instead. The shorter article offers a 19 minute audio and the longer article is accompanied by a 55-minute audio.
The shorter article begins by describing the book’s opening scene: a lethal heat wave descends on India, with vast, horrifying consequences.
A recent news story echoes this premise.
From YaleClimateConnections.com
I laughed when my brother’s partner suggested we plan an upcoming visit to Los Angeles in September instead of July because it’s so hot there then. It’s pretty hot here too, I told her.
When we moved into this house in 1993, for the first many summers there were only a couple of weeks, maybe ten days, that were unbearably hot. You could get by with a window unit easily.
When the boys were little and we had one window AC, we’d all sleep in one bedroom like refugees during those dog days. Afternoons, when we weren’t swimming at Crystal Lake, we’d go to the movies or the mall just for the chilled air. The heat spells were relatively brief and manageable.
And then it changed. The heat started earlier in the season and lasted longer. Much longer. I had to campaign for central air because it’s expensive. We have a supply of window fans to cool us on the borderline days, but it’d be really hard to get through a Boston summer without central air anymore.
I’m planning to write upstairs with AWA friends this morning (via zoom of course) then spend as much time outside as I can stand later. I have a beautiful fresh bundle of dill so maybe a cold cucumber soup is in order!
From prognostications of doom to menu planning? Yeah, that’s me all the way.
Have a great weekend all.
Thanks for the reading recommendations!
Gonna be a hot one here too.
I usually try to comment on the subject on hand but it has been hot here and windyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy and climate change is real and heat is real and the winds are real and fueling so many of the very destructive fires here in New Mexico that I am simply drained; at a loss for what to say…in Spain, land of my parents, they are experiencing temps of 107 degrees! Caliente is an understatement!!!
SO
I will digress and proudly announce that today, I am officially the GrandMa of teenagers:
My twin grands, grandson Wolf and granddaughter Rowena, are 13 yrs old! Just got off the phone with them and my heart is so full. 13 years ago, two tiny beings of light and joy came into our world. They still are those beings of light and joy but tiny, well, Wolff is already 5’9″ and Rowena is 5’5″, both have surpassed me in height. The both laughed this morning and asked if I remembered how when I would come for a visit, one of the first things they did was measure themselves against me. My grandson said, now he could carry me, in his new manly voice, a voice that I can hear echoes of the fine man that he will become. Rowena said that she knew I always wanted to be tall so she will be tall for me. She was on her way to volunteer at her school, they were holding a festival for the younger grades and this is what she wanted to do on her birthday. Later there will be a pizza party with friends.
Life these days is so precious, family rituals so very important, no matter what. I may not be with my loveys, my grand kids on their birthday but I will see them in a few months. Those dear families in Buffalo will not be able to do the same….
Marti — always with the moving testament to family. Thank you so much for taking the time to write here and tell us about your newly-minted teenaged grandkids even though the heat is exhausting you.
The predicted high temps are not materializing here today. It’s not so hot we can’t garden a little.
Years ago, I used to joke with a MA friend by always saying ‘yep it’s in the 80’s’ type of thing during our weather conversations…expressing how hot it was here…now the 80’s don’t feel so bad. sigh.
Yeah 80’s is nothing. The humidity here is killer too.
So grateful to not have to deal with that one!
90as and triple digits in Texas … every single day in May has been above normal, whatever “normal” is anymore … it’s gonna be a long hot summer