You know it’s bad when the hottest day in the history of tracking temperatures was beaten the very next day.
July 4. Then July 5.
This collage used photos from NYTimes Sunday piece wondering if California dams will hold. Below is a flagrant copyright violation. Does it matter if I do so intentionally and with attribution?
Four of the scariest words in the English language these days: faster than previously thought.
In a conversation today: recycling is promoted as a distraction from the fossil fuel industry.
Somewhere I read that becoming a vegetarian is more consequential than even switching to an electric vehicle.
We don’t invest in fossils fuel companies. A small step, one made without personal sacrifice, but one hopefully making a difference.
In the Northeast we are not under the heat dome that is causing so much suffering in the southern part of the country. But it has been too hot to walk Finn a couple days recently. Better to lay low.
Meanwhile, we have to fight.
How are you staying cool (if it’s hot)? How are you managing the deluge of bad climate news? What, if anything, do you do to minimize your contribution to global warming?
P S on another melancholy note, Lawrence O’Donnell gave a moving and elegiac speech mourning the Supreme Court recently. It’s very much worth a listen (google his name and SCOTUS and it comes right up).
Planting more plants, more plants, more plants, creating habitat for creatures, eating mostly plant-based ( tho not vegan), consolidating trips ( or just staying home ), reusing old things, attempting to use less electricity thru-out the day (Alabama Power still burns coal 😜) Reducing the “footprint” as much as possible at this point….& trying to bring awareness to others…….
Voting.
I love that doll!
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Such good acts!!!
Our family is not ready to go vegan but have absolutely cut back on meat purchases .. looking at the raising prices helps in our effort. Buying local .. have tried to do that as much as possible for a long time now. Buying fruits and vegetables in season .. bought my first bag of cherries 🍒 today.
Thanks for sharing how to listen to O’Donnald’s speech .. love it when you share how to find things. Have a great weekend!!
Yes to local produce and a shifted balance in diet! I have found the price of beef motivating too. Many more nights of veggies-only in this house as well.
O’Donnell’s speech is a must read. Powerful and right on.
It’s a lament.
It’s dismal. What am I doing? Planting trees and trying to keep them alive. Mowing less grass, planting natives and working to get rid of invasives at the same time. Eating less meat but regretting that I find it impossible to live on nuts and celery. Meat is so expensive, but good organic veggies are also very expensive.Driving a hybrid plug-in. Driving way too many miles a year tho. Effectively nothing. I’m doing nothing when you total it up.I don’t play golf, that’s good? . I don’t have a private jet!
I wash and reuse my ziplock bags most of the time – some are too disgusting. Feeling very very sad about the big oil companies who do nothing. And the military industrial complex has not changed in fact I’m guessing it must simply get worse by the hour.. Somehow we, as a society, have not been able to come together to do what was needed over past 60 years.
We are some of the first wave of climate refugees I think. We left Arizona a few months ago. There were many reasons, the heat for one. The fires. The lack of water. It seems like the perfect storm of many bad things happening all at once. I think of my parents and how much they endured in their lifetimes. The Great Depression. World War. Hitler. And yet, I think there must have always been hope. I could be wrong but I feel hopeless now for my children and grandchildren. I am one person. I recycle. I eat mostly vegetables. But is it enough? The big question. Can we do enough?
we, humanity, have become more than the planet can sustain … and I fear the “cure” will be a purge as temperatures generate weather and fires that cannot be survived … sadly, it will be the least among us who will suffer the most from those of us who created the very conditions that are the root of the problem … and as has been so horribly demonstrated by the lack of action on gun violence, death will not change the minds of those in a position to do something substantive on a national or global level
written as I sit in a house that is far larger than we need, with air conditioning that further contributes to the problem even as the temperatures in Texas are forecast to be mostly in triple digits for the coming weeks/months … the few things I have done over the years –air-drying laundry, using cloth napkins, thrift shopping for used clothing– are far too little balanced against the air travel we indulge in to be with family … sigh
Every little step we can/do take, leads me to thoughts of those who do nothing…so how much of a drop in the bucket are we really able to make? And how do we reconcile hopeless feelings when a generation is coming up behind us? ‘sigh’ indeed.