A Flower Set on the Windowsill

A flower set on the windowsill;

gravely, the flower gathers water from

a quarter filled pot. And stem still green,

but water here lacks rill

and a stagnant touch browns the pedals,

(rotting’s faint trill,

through air, like evaporate’s keen

surrounding and ripples

and humid calm).

But flower’s white frill-

set against the window’s sill-

still admires the night

not fighting against the water’s flight.

Another day, the flower might.

 

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells: Facts Put to Sense

 

“Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think”

The Uninhabitable Earth is the most terrifying book I have ever read. Its subject is climate change, and its method is scientific, but its mode is Old Testament. The book is a meticulously documented, white-knuckled tour through the cascading catastrophes that will soon engulf our warming planet.” —Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times

 

Our group of contributors have collected some of the most pressing climate facts from The Uninhabitable Earth. Facts rather than predictions, so that we can know what climate change is doing today, and not just tomorrow.

(Click on a category to find out more)

Unbreathable Air

Water Scarcity

Drowning

Heat Death

Sea Level Rise

Spread of Diseases

 

How to Talk to with Parents and Friends About Climate Change

To Whom This May Concern, 

Remember when you were a little kid and you saw the ocean for the first time after a long winter? You would stay all day and build sand castles and swim. Or how you loved to explore the forest around your house and how even if you weren’t very religious, it made you believe in something bigger than yourself? Do you remember how sacred those moments felt? 

It is easy to look the other way when people start talking about the crisis our planet is in- how in many ways, it’s a lost cause. It means that instead of focusing on the little irritations of our every day life, we would need to come to terms that soon living on this earth will be unsafe and many of the beautiful things that we take for granted will be gone. I know this is a lot to grapple with. I understand that it may feel more comfortable to be ignorant and ignore the statistics. It feels too big to hold and much too upsetting. But the time is now. As David Wallace- Wells writes in his book “The Uninhabitable Earth”, “Between that scenario and the world, we live in now lies only the open question of human response… all of the paths projected from the present… will be carved overwhelmingly by what we choose to do now (15). So I ask that you educate yourself, you look at what is happening in the world- how the temperature is rising, animals and wildlife are dying and how our earth is no longer able to withstand the damage we have done. Don’t just think that “those activists will do something about you.” We need you there, we need you calling representatives, writing letters, going to marches. The time is now. 

-Maya


Dear Human,

I want to start by letting you know that I do not want to be the cause for any distress that my letter might bring. Although if I do, then I’ll know my purpose in writing this letter has been fulfilled. My purpose is not to distress you, but to make you aware of the troubling things that have been happening to your home, Earth, while you have been living here and even before that time. 

When people hear about climate change, they often think far ahead into the future, that global warming has no effect on the lives we live now. I’m here to tell you that is false. Climate change is occuring right now. Every second that goes by, climate change is happening. Your eyes may have stopped to ponder upon that sentence, but global warming did not. It continued and steadily continues. In a way, climate change works the same way that time does. It is not something that can be stopped. Sure, a timer is precisely an object that limits time. However, that’s time on a small scale. I’m talking about humanity’s time on Earth, which is a much larger scale. Like time, climate change can never be prevented, especially not at this point in 2020. At best, we can hope to reduce its effects.

Climate change is a personal issue, however, not many take it personally. With this in mind, I’m going to try to appeal to you by speaking about the thing you love most: family, both human and nonhuman. 

Do you have children in your family? How old are they? The age truly does matter. As the century goes on, decade by decade the climate changes. At present, the Earth is warming at a rate that suggests by 2100 the planet will be 4.5 degrees warmer according to the United Nations (14). Depending upon when the children in your family were born, they will have to suffer climate change for a longer duration than you will ever have to. Are you the child of your family? By 2050, there will be millions of climate refugees searching for dry land and breathable air (32). You might be asking yourself, “Where will they go?” However, can you even assume that “they” will not be you?

Do you own any pets? Think of them right now. I’m biased towards dogs, so think of your sweet canine running around outside during a nice hot summer day. Maybe it’s a hot winter day. She comes inside all thirsty from her joyful exercise. She runs quickly to her water dish, but there’s no water in there. She looks to you to fill it. Being the good owner you are, you do. Where did you get that water? Was it from the sink? Well, it has been found that microplastics “are found in the tap water of 94 percent of all tested American cities” (106). If you do not know, microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic debris resulting from consumer products and industrial waste disposals. Our water is filled with microplastics. Do you drink tap water? I’m not sure where the 6 percent of those cities are located that do not have microplastics in their water, however, can you be sure that you do not fall under the majority? Are you comfortable with this? 

Even though plastic is not tied to global warming in the sense that plastic does not directly warm the environment, the fact that plastic is produced by industrial activity connects it to the production of pollutants, such as carbon dioxide. Also, when plastics degrade, “they release methane and ethylene,” which is another powerful greenhouse gas (106). Currently, particles suspended in the air, also known as aerosol pollution, reduce the amount of global warming we are currently experiencing. This might sound like a good thing, however, I just told you all about the microplastics you drink in water, do you really want to keep all of the anthropogenic pollutants in the air, even if it reduces warming? That question isn’t out to trick you. In fact, scientists are debating whether or not that is a good option. The result of answering that question is called a “‘devil’s bargain’: a choice between public-health-destroying pollution” and “clear skies whose very clearness and healthiness will dramatically accelerate climate change” (107). I’m not quite sure what the answer is either.

But we are all in this together.

If I still have not convinced you that climate change is real and is happening now, please read David Wallace-Wells’s book The Uninhabitable Earth. I’ve referenced it several times in this letter to give myself some credibility. Each sentence is heavy, but each sentence is important. None are as heavy, however, as the sentence humans have to endure due to the effects of climate change.

Let yourself breathe.

With love and hope,

Lea