> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.possibilities.news/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Unintended Consequences - URL: https://www.possibilities.news/over-the-seawall-stephen-robert-miller/ - Published: 2023-10-19T15:00:53.000Z - Updated: 2023-10-19T15:00:55.000Z - Description: As the conflict in Israel-Palestine rages on, I wonder what past climate failures sold as solutions can teach us. - Author: Yessenia Funes **LISTENING:** *to the Palestinian lofi duo above* **FEELING:** *sick... again* **SEEING:** *smoke from my cup of tea* I'm keeping it short today, y'all. I want to make space, instead, for the stories below from affected peoples I hope you read. What I do want to say is this: The actions we, as a people, make today have consequences. Some of those consequences we hope for; others are unintended. In the Middle East, the Palestine-Israel conflict has grown too gruesome for my heart to bear. I can't stomach the images I see without crying. I scroll past the ugly, feeling guilt over my inability to confront the pain of the Palestinian children I see on my screen. I wonder: What are the unintended consequences of such suffering? Both on the land and on the people? Hate breeds hate, but I hope these kids are imbued with enough love to eradicate whatever hate has been seeded by the genocide the Israeli government is attempting on the Palestinian people. Love finds its way—the possibility of love amid such devastation is a miracle in and of itself. [Uprade your membership](#/portal/account/plans) Welcome to **Possibilities**, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m **Yessenia Funes**, and I want to talk briefly about the ways so-called solutions can lead to more damage. Perhaps the Israeli government believes that bombing Gaza will keep the Hamas extremist group from growing. What may actually result, if history serves us right, is the expansion of such terrorism. This happens in the climate world, too. Stephen Robert Miller, my dear friend, investigates this climate reality in his new book publishing in a few weeks, "[Over the Seawall](https://islandpress.org/books/over-seawall?ref=possibilities.news)." (Pre-order please!) The book examines the ripple effects of so-called solutions: seawalls, dams, canals, levees, embankments, and laws. The book focuses on maladaptation. Here is how the U.N. [defines](https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NAPC/Pages/glossary.aspx?ref=possibilities.news) the term. 🌀 maladaptation: any changes in natural or human systems that inadvertently increase vulnerability to climatic stimuli; an adaptation that does not succeed in reducing vulnerability but increases it instead What happens when a government—oftentimes guided by greed—decides to invest billions into a project only for it to cause more suffering down the line? What happens when people confide in a seawall so much that they dare to stand upon it as a tsunami arrives rather than run as far away as they can from it? What happens when they die, instead? I wrote about "Over the Seawall" in my latest for Atmos. Read it [here](https://atmos.earth/designing-climate-adaptations-for-people-not-profit/?ref=possibilities.news). **Governments make decisions like this every day. They approve giant infrastructure proposals. They pass laws. They declare war.** All of this costs not only money—it can also cost lives.🌀 ## Rest in Power At least [4,200 peopl](https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2023/10/latest-occupied-palestinian-territoryisrael?ref=possibilities.news)e have been killed amid the conflict in Palestine-Israel. In 10 days, 4,200 people. ## Currently Reading ["Today I’m telling you the news. Tomorrow, I may be the news. I’m not sure that I will be able to write another story in the upcoming days. I’m not sure that I will survive."](https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/this-could-be-my-last-report-from-gaza/?ref=possibilities.news) A [heartbreaking essay](https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/have-we-learned-nothing/?ref=possibilities.news) from David Klion, an American Jew. Back to some climate news: a great [photo essay](https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-mountain-valley-pipeline-west-virginia/?ref=possibilities.news) from Bloomberg on the Mountain Valley Pipeline resistance. We love queer femme Latines in STEM. [From Jessica Kutz at The 19th.](https://19thnews.org/2023/10/mb-ramirez-latinx-geologist-host-scientist/?ref=possibilities.news) Now, I want to try a pawpaw. The New York Times [profiles](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/nyregion/pawpaw-fruit-brooklyn.html?ref=possibilities.news) one man growing a bunch in his backyard. And in case you missed it above, my [latest](https://atmos.earth/designing-climate-adaptations-for-people-not-profit/?ref=possibilities.news) for Atmos. ## Poetry humans are mean we’re one of the worst killing machines but that doesn’t mean we’re untouchable that doesn’t mean our actions go unseen nothing lasts forever and that includes this disease this disease that is death this disease that is war this disease unspoken between you and me \-ylf- ****What are you reading and seeing? Join the community and become a paid member so that you can share in a comment.** **See you next week. xx** \- Yessenia [Follow me on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/yessfun/?ref=possibilities.news) [Follow me on TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@msyessfun?ref=possibilities.news) [Follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/yessfun?ref=possibilities.news) [Follow me on Threads](https://www.threads.net/@yessfun?ref=possibilities.news)