Pirate's Cove

This whole “everybody panic” stuff is just so 2006

You are not safe: My life under the existential dread of climate change

Weeks after I moved to New Orleans from Los Angeles, I awoke around 7:30 in the morning to the sound of crackling lightning and pouring rain. I looked out the window, and dark clouds blanketed the sky. The rain was nearly horizontal, and a couple of inches of water had accumulated on the grass outside. Within a few hours, the water was over a foot deep outside my house, which was raised off the ground to keep floodwater from getting inside.

I had never experienced a real flood before moving to New Orleans. It came without warning, and I didn’t know if things would worsen. When the rain let up, I put on some tennis shoes and went to see if the grocery store was open so I could get supplies. On the street, the water was roughly two feet deep. I shuffled through it for several blocks until I got out of the flooded part of the neighborhood and made my way to the store. This was the flash flood that struck New Orleans just days before Hurricane Barry made landfall in July.

Cool story, Thor Benson. If only there was some way to find out what the weather is going to do.

In 2009 at age 18, I moved from Maine to Santa Barbara, California. Months after I arrived, the Jesusita Fire engulfed the mountains above where I lived. My roommate and I each packed a bag and went to the beach to seek refuge. We watched the hills burn. We were lucky. Our home was intact when we returned, but that was the first time I ever worried about a natural disaster leaving me homeless. I lived through many large wildfires after that.

As a journalist who writes about the climate crisis, experiences like these have shown me firsthand the weight of the topic I’m covering. California has always had wildfires, but they’re becoming more frequent and more destructive. New Orleans has always experienced hurricanes, but they’re also becoming more powerful. Climate change is making natural disasters exponentially worse.

Interesting. The Jesusita Fire was tracked back to irresponsible contractors, not Hotcoldwetdry (or a UFO)

The existential dread you feel escaping a natural disaster is often intense. Suddenly the world around you is fundamentally unsafe. The unpredictability of the situation keeps you constantly on edge. When it’s your job to write about the bleak future we face as a society, this fear stays with you. This is the future for millions of Americans. Things probably aren’t going to get better, and no one knows what the consequences will be. (snip)

It’s difficult to cope with what often feels like an impending apocalypse. We tell ourselves that things will be fine in the long run, because we can’t handle the idea that things might not be okay. We imagine that someone is on top of this and will save the day eventually. The alternative is unthinkable. The alternative, if climate change is not stopped, is massive death tolls, billions of climate refugees, a dead ocean, constant droughts, widespread fires, Biblical storms and a world consumed by desperation. That’s not our future, right?