An Endless Nightmare
LISTENING: "you'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling"
FEELING: really fucking confused
SEEING: my cat's hair get blown everywhere by my AC
It's officially air conditioning season in New York City. It's hot as balls, and there's no way I'm going to suffer without some artificially cooled air. And then, I remember how lucky I am to live this way. To have reprieve the push of a button away. That's not true for many people around the globe.
The ones who come to mind today, however, are the migrants and asylum seekers who walk through the southwestern desert with hopes of reaching the U.S. In the Southwest, the first heat wave is underway with temperatures in the triple digits ahead of the season schedule.
During the past weekend alone — the first weekend in June — U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded four deaths. In 2022, the agency confirmed 365 deaths related to extreme heat in the border region, a nearly 67 percent increase from the 219 deaths recorded in 2021.
That number is only likely to increase with President Joe Biden's recent executive order to shut the border to asylum seekers.
Welcome to Possibilities, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m Yessenia Funes, and I'm sick of being disappointed.
º ⋱・♡ Celebrating a Year of Possibilities ♡・⋰ º
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I'll have more to share on this next week. Seriously, love y'all.
Biden ran on a campaign full of promises — many of which he has broken. This hasn't been lost on climate and human rights advocates. Friends of the Earth Climate and Energy Justice Program Director Karen Orenstein described the order as "unjust and inhumane" in a press release.
"With the increasing severity of climate events — such as devastating hurricanes, shifting weather patterns, and intensifying drought and desertification — communities around the world are facing greater threats of displacement," Orenstein said in the release. "Migration and immigration are often forms of climate adaptation."
Meanwhile, the Climate Justice Collaborative at the National Partnership for New Americans is speaking out, too.
"The climate crisis demands the creation of compassionate, orderly, and safe migration pathways for those who cannot stay in their homes, instead of dangerous and harmful theatrics about the border," said Climate Justice Collaborative Director Ahmed Gaya in a statement.
At Greenpeace, U.S. Chief Program Officer Tefere Gebre said in a statement: "[T]o satisfy his anti-immigrant critics, President Biden has taken a massive step backwards with this executive action. As a refugee myself, I implore the Biden administration to immediately change course. As the climate crisis accelerates, people worldwide will experience displacement at alarming rates. These are parents, children, and loved ones who deserve dignity and basic human rights."
I've written in-depth about the ways climate change is making the Southwest, in particular, dangerous for migrants and the need for safe pathways forward. It's a personal issue for me. My parents crossed the desert on foot to reach the U.S. many decades ago. I'm here today where I can speak and write and tell stories because they survived that journey.
Atmos
It feels like many advocates are so worried about another Donald Trump presidency that they're unwilling to push the current president to be better. Trump will be worse. Everyone knows that. He will be multitudes worse — for the planet, for migrants, for Muslims and Arab-Americans.
That fact alone won't be enough, however, to get voters to fill in a box next to Biden's name come November. Shaming folks won't convince them they should take time out of their day to head to the polls at all. People need to see that the political system is worth their energy and investment. Right now, folks are feeling disillusioned. And many have given up altogether. They've lost faith in politicians and elected officials. They have only themselves to lean on.
I was just in Louisiana reporting a story about carbon capture where members of the historically Black community I was interviewing expressed profound heartbreak and anger at the Biden administration. While his administration touts different technologies and products as a necessary part of the clean energy transition, these folks feel they've been left behind. They're the ones left to suffer more air quality burdens as industry expands. They're sacrificed so that the rest of the world can benefit from lower greenhouse gas emissions. Many folks I spoke to said they won't vote at all this year.
I'm at a loss for words. The president can't play both sides and expect to win. He can't harm a people and expect them to suck it up and show up for him. I'm terrified of what's to come in November. We're already living a nightmare, but a Trump presidency would be hell.
I'm not ready. 🌀
Rest in Power
While we can't say for certain that climate change led to these specific weather events (we need attribution studies for that), we do know that the Earth's rising temperatures are already creating more disasters like these.
More than 50 people have died from the extreme heat wave to hit India last week.
Meanwhile, in Mexico, at least 61 people have died from a heat dome.
Southern Germany has been flooding, and at least five people are dead.
Currently Reading
At The Intercept, Kavitha Chekuru reports on the Palestinian doctors who have disappeared in Israeli detention. A heartbreaking, haunting read.
I've been absolutely blown away by this series on how climate change affects pregnancy published by Vox, The 19th, and Grist. This package is exactly what climate journalism needs more of. If you can't read all the stories, please please read this one on a family's journey through IVF and the hurricane that disrupted it all by Jessica Kutz and Zoya Teirstein.
Mary Annaïse Heglar to Molly Lipson for Atmos on her debut fiction novel: "This is a book about healing. The thing I hope people are able to take away from this book is that even when the world is burning, when the world is falling apart, it is still possible to heal."
Arielle Samuelson and Emily Atkin give us a dose of realness about Mexico's so-called "leftist climate scientist" president.
To celebrate Pride Month, please read this amazing cover story by my girl Joan Summers for Paper Magazine — a convo between Chappell Roan (my latest obsession) and Trixie Mattel.
Art
See you next week. xx
- Yessenia
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