environmentalism

Scenes from the New American Dustbowl

Similar to the previous link, novelist Alan Heathcock made a visit that provided real perspective about the climate problem:

“I feel badly, not just because others don’t care, but because I was reluctant to care, too. It’s hard to make people care because there’s a general mistrust of desperation, as if a desperate person has replaced logic with emotion, truth with exaggeration. Each night I’ve gone through my notes and fact-checked the farmers, doubting what they told me. Even after seeing the land and meeting the people I second-guessed their claims and statistics, only to find, time and again, they were telling the truth.”

People tend to write off climate concerns as something that only affects poor people in faraway places, too distant to be concerned about. But it's happening right here, right now.

Even if you're not one of the insane people who deny climate change entirely, you must understand this isn't just a problem for your great-grandchildren to deal with. We will likely feel its effects within our own lifetimes. Our children certainly will.

Think about that the next time you decide to write about how you didn't like your huge iPhone.

Meet the Real Victims of Climate Change

Brooke Jarvis visited Papua New Guinea and was confronted with the issue of climate change more directly than even she had anticipated:

“Elias had heard that ice was melting, but hadn’t heard why. No amount of reading or writing about climate change can really prepare you to look into the face of someone who will soon flee her home and explain the greenhouse effect.”

As if by cruel joke, my cigarette-smoking, motorcycle-obsessed neighbors across the street decided to rev their engines SUPER loud and peel off down the street just as I reached the end of this piece.