Disaster & Desecration

LISTENING: to Chappell Roan on repeat
FEELING: better
SEEING: my weekly calendar reminder to GO OUTSIDE this weekend

Every week, I take a look at the extreme weather events killing people. I don't do this accounting to be sensational or morbid. I do this to inform. To show the ways climate change is already harming people — most of whom did very little (if anything) to contribute to the planet's heating. My goal is also to honor the lives of those lost. That's why I call the section Rest in Power.

Well, last week, I looked at the number of people who died during this year's Islamic Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. When I wrote the newsletter, some 550 people were believed to have died due to extreme heat. Now, the number has shot past 1,300.

Welcome to Possibilities, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m Yessenia Funes, and I believe extreme heat needs to be treated as the emergency it is.