Whom Do You Remember?
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There's a wonderful intimacy to your writing that can't be found in most climate media.
LISTENING: to my stomach growl
FEELING: starved!!!
SEEING: my new hairdo reflection on my computer monitor
If you're reading this on Thursday, when the newsletter publishes, you'll be reading this on the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. This annual marker honors the trans lives we've lost this year.
Every loss is one too many. Every life is a universe.
This year, the day also occurs while the COP30 climate negotiations continue in Belém, Brazil. Not even these bureaucratic international spaces are free from the transphobia that plagues our societies. Chloé Farand reports for the Guardian:
Before the UN talks in Brazil, hardline conservative states have pushed to define gender as “biological sex” over their concerns trans and non-binary people could be included in a major plan to ensure climate action addresses gender inequality and empowers women.
Gender rights advocates said the move would backslide on decade-old language within the UN system.
“These are unprecedented times to negotiate on gender equality and women’s empowerment,” said Lorena Aguilar, the executive director of the US-based Kaschak Institute for Social Justice for Women and Girls, and Costa Rica’s former vice minister for foreign affairs.
Sigh. Since November 2024, at least 58 trans people are known to have died in the U.S. Most were lost to suicide and violence. Research is starting to uncover and confirm the ways the climate crisis disproportionately harms trans people, too. I've written about these impacts many times, so I won't repeat myself. (A story from earlier this year for the anniversary of Nex Benedict's death is here.) I've also exposed the way fossil fuel forces that have caused our planet's destruction are also funding conservative transphobic organizations.
This is all connected. I'm disheartened that government officials are stressing over which type of women they want to protect as they plan to make climate policies more inclusive. All women deserve climate justice and safety. Trans women especially. Any effort to improve this effort on a global scale would be lacking without a lens on trans people.
Atmos
I can't say I'm surprised. We'll have to wait and see what negotiators decide as COP30 wraps up this week. Argentina and Paraguay have requested clarity on how the text defines "gender," per the Guardian. I'm not sure what they'll decide.
What I do know is that without proper mechanisms in place to protect trans people, climate change will become just another force ending trans lives too soon. There's enough death already. Queer communities deserve better. My sisters deserve better. 🌀
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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 frequent and/or stronger disasters like these.
Storm Claudia killed at least three in Portugal.
An atmospheric river dropped intense rains over California, leaving at least seven dead.
Severe rains have triggered landslides in Indonesia, killing at least 18 people over the last week.
Currently Reading
Hear from a wildland firefighter deported under the Trump administration, by Sam Levin for the Guardian: "I felt betrayed. We were fighting fires deep in the forest. I never thought this could happen."
Sara Schonhardt addresses the elephant in the room at COP30 for POLITICO.
Vann R. Newkirk II paints a chilling portrait in his latest for The Atlantic: "Over the next 30 years or so, the changes to American life might be short of apocalyptic. But miles of heartbreak lie between here and the apocalypse, and the future toward which we are heading will mean heartbreak for millions."
Always read Molly Taft. Their story on data centers for WIRED reminds us that this future is not guaranteed. Phew.
Poetry
THE RIVER AND THE TREES
in the Amazon,
the trees breathe life into Earth
but not as they burn
foreigners gather
in their business suits and lies,
yet they cannot hide
from the river's cries
it watches — always knowing
until the trees die
-ylf-
So much writing to do! Ahhh!
- Yessenia
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