Ice Shelf Collapses in East Antarctica
The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/25/climate/east-antarctica-ice-shelf-collapse.html Scientists say a period of unusual weather, combined with record-low sea ice, led to the disintegration of the Conger ice shelf. (3/25/22)
“The Middle of a Wish”, a novel from Lightport Books, imagines the consequences of our current world policies and the future of humans on Earth. https://www.amazon.com/Middle-Wish-Heather-Conrad/dp/0971242585
Bicycling with Butterflies, a fascinating book by Sara Dykman, is an account of her 9-month solo bicycle trip following the annual Monarch butterfly migration over 10,000 miles. Especially impressive is her courageous, adventuring spirit, and what an excellent athlete she must be to pedal dozens of miles a day in so many terrains on a bicycle with 70 pounds of equipment strapped to it. Her many interesting encounters on her journey also amaze. What may be most impressive and valuable about her book is her eloquence in making the case for respecting the natural world. She articulates things others have said, but with such a simple and profound common sense it’s eye-opening. “Finding Refuge” and “Hope in the Corn” are just two of the chapters with exceptional gems of wisdom. This book is both an engaging and a healing read.
Andrew Rublev, 24 year-old Russian tennis star: “In these moments you realize that my match is not important… how it affects me…You realize how important it is to have peace in the world and to respect each other no matter what and to be united…. We should take care of our earth and of each other. This is the most important thing.”
As said in the New York Times today by David Brooks “….authoritarians tell a simple story about how to restore order — it comes from cultural homogeneity [emphasis mine] and the iron fist of the strongman.” This is one of the reasons why diversity matters.
A war waged at the will of a “strongman” is facilitated by those countrymen who choose national identity over diversity and humanism. The unbearable suffering of families and children caused by war is facilitated when empathy is not present, and cultural identity is valued above the well-being of others.
On this regressive, sad day for the world, one hope going forward is to cultivate diversity, among people and species and all the wondrous life Earth has to offer.
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate https://bio4climate.org offers a stunning array of new programs and events to revive living systems on Earth.
The Middle of a Wish, a new novel from Lightport books, follows a band of climate refugees leaving “The Westlands” after sea level rise and wildfire have made large areas uninhabitable. The novel is set in the future, a future that is arriving sooner than expected.
From the New York Times 8/27/21:
“Earlier this month, federal officials declared an emergency water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time…. Americans are about to face all sorts of difficult choices about how and where to live as the climate continues to heat up. States will be forced to choose which coastlines to abandon as sea levels rise, which wildfire-prone suburbs to retreat from, and which small towns cannot afford new infrastructure to protect against floods or heat. What to do in the parts of the country that are losing their essential supply of water may turn out to be the first among those choices.” — Abrahm Lustgarten. Mr. Lustgarten is an environmental reporter for ProPublica. His reporting about the causes of water scarcity in the American West, “Killing the Colorado,” was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.
The Middle of a Wish is available as an ebook.
From the New York Times 5/26/21: “Even Amid a Pandemic, More Than 40 Million People Fled Their Homes. Storms, floods, wildfires and to a lesser degree, conflict, uprooted millions globally in 2020 — the largest human displacement in more than a decade.”
It’s likely there will be more climate refugees in the western United States this year as one of the worst droughts on record continues.
How will we handle the enormous, ongoing and increasing problem of displaced peoples and climate migrants? This is the central question of Lightport Books new release, “In the Middle of a Wish.”
After 21st century CIVIL WAR, CLIMATE CRISIS, and ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
there is THE RENEWAL
In the year 2047, Mom and her daughter, Star, leave their home in Westlands. Traveling with their collective, Caretakers, they join other bands of climate refugees heading inland to a region rumored to have vast wind farms, underground cities, and blockchain banking. Their new guide, Riga, was a hero with the Reformers in the Civil War of 2030. Riga and Star form an intense bond as they journey east and encounter hostile war veterans; cross the newly formed Valley Sea; and then, for those who make it to the other side, a new world.
“Earth is now losing 1.2 trillion tons of ice each year. And it’s going to get worse.” Washington Post 1/25/21
“Going back to normal now means returning to a course that will destabilize the conditions for all human life, everywhere on earth. Normal means more fires, more category 5 hurricanes, more flooding, more drought, millions upon millions more migrants fleeing famine and civil war, more crop failures, more storms, more extinctions, more record-breaking heat. Normal means the increasing likelihood of civil unrest and state collapse, of widespread agricultural failure and collapsing fisheries, of millions of people dying from thirst and hunger, of new diseases, old diseases spreading to new places and the havoc of war. Normal could well mean the end of global civilization as we know it.” Roy Scranton, Director of the Notre Dame Environmental Humanities Initiative, New York Times (1/25/21) “I’ve Said Goodbye to Normal.You Should, Too.”
THE MIDDLE of a WISH takes us to this future and beyond.
As reported in the New York Times this morning, it is still possible to prevent 70% of extinctions currently threatening one million plant and animal species on Earth. And it is still possible to keep global temperatures below a rise of 2 degrees Celsius. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/climate/biodiversity-farmland-extinction.html
How? By restoring 30% of the planet’s farmlands to nature. Rewilding, as some call it, strategic swaths of farmland around the globe will achieve these remarkable results.
As reported in the journal Nature, a European Space Agency map was converted to identify the key swaths of land. The Global Safety Net provides a similar and complementary map representing the areas key to preserving biodiversity and stabilizing the climate. https://www.globalsafetynet.app
The rewilding of farmlands could be done while still producing enough food for the human population. How would the farmers be reimbursed for their land? If the trillions of dollars currently used to subsidize fossil fuel industries and unsustainable farming practices were redirected to rewilding farmland, the goal can be achieved
The PBS series “Age of Nature,” narrated by Uma Thurman, offers hope for restoring some of Earth’s ecosystems. Beautiful photography and exploration of our planet’s resilience show what is possible if we choose to reverse the tragic environmental devastation of the past. https://www.pbs.org/show/age-nature
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