Saturday, September 9, 2017

The New Normal

"What color is the sky?" the teacher asks the class.
"White!" the children respond for this is all they know.

Smoke. Haze. Fire. Our Pacific Northwest summer, the one season where we reliably see blue skies, overcast by wildfire smoke raging across the region. We haven't seen a blue sky in days. The sun burns red. My mouth tastes like smoke and I try not to go outside. I feel like a dinosaur after the meteorite which kills them all.

On the other side of the country, epic hurricanes tear through sprawling suburbs and Irma promises more. People dead, homes destroyed, flood upon flood upon flood. This is our new normal.

So what can we do? So what MUST we do?

Have one less child/adopt a child. Drive less. Fly less. Eat less beef. But most of all, demand more. More from your governments, more from your corporations, and more from your sustainable self.