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Americans, the reelection of Joe Biden is absolutely vital. Climate change is a leading reason why. Even if you disagree with some of his actions and policies, e.g., Gaza or COVID response, or are concerned about his age, please don't sit this one out or throw your vote away on a third party (effectively giving a vote to Trump). Not now. Biden has done perhaps more than any other single person in combating climate change through the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Act. But there is still a lot more that needs to be done--urgently. If you think the southern border is a mess or you are appalled by gruesome wars, what we are seeing now is nothing compared to what climate change will continue to bring. November is still a long way off, but please keep this in mind. Or better yet, start working now to keep him in office. (Congress matters too). 
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Fossil fuel companies (and their corrupt government operatives) aren't going to stop themselves - we have to force them. Here's an outlet to begin this world-historically important work: a Global Climate Strike is planned by Fridays for Future on September 15, and a March to End Fossil Fuels will be held in New York and around the world on September 17 (LINK HERE). “Anything else you’re interested in is not going to happen if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of the planet.” --Carl Sagan  Is this finally the climate change equivalent of the dust bowl? Our "Black Sunday"? In 1935, after denial and inaction by D.C. legislators, a plume of dust from Oklahoma darkened the skies--landing directly on D.C.--finally making the issue inescapable. I have a glimmer of hope, but also realize that a significant portion of our political landscape is hopelessly out of touch with reality (I'm talking to you, [most] Republicans and Joe Manchin) to the point of not only denying ample scientific evidence, but even their own senses. "[fire historian Stephen] Pyne sees a small glimmer of hope: Just like the day in 2020 when San Francisco turned orange, this dramatic smoke event might help show the urgency of fighting climate change. “These large smoke palls may have the same motivating effect as the Dust Bowl squalls in the '30s,” says Pyne. “That was a remote environmental issue in the middle of the country where hardly anybody lived. And now it's at the steps of the Capitol.”" (from here)  A dust storm from the Midwest blew into Washington in 1935, darkening the skies over the Lincoln Memorial. (Source: USDA website) |
Chris Dunn, PhD
Researcher, writer, explorer*, photographer, thinker. Wrestling with nature, culture, technology. Archives
April 2025
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*When I use the term "exploration", I mean it in a personal sense (discovery for myself, or at a unique moment in time [everywhere after all--even crowded cities--endlessly await rediscovery--by new eyes and in new moments]), not in an absolute sense. With few exceptions (notably Antarctica), almost everywhere on earth has had other people around for a long time (though to varying degrees - high mountain tops or places like the interior of the Greenland Ice Sheet for instance were far less visited and populated, and undoubtedly at least some pockets of the earth were never visited or populated). It is an enlightening experience though when on an isolated ridge in what feels like the middle of nowhere to wonder if anyone has set foot there but never knowing for sure. What is significant is that the landscape itself is left in such a condition that it isn't evident. Some places ought to be kept that way.
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