It's Too Damn Hot

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LISTENING: to songs that feel like summer
FEELING: so fucking hot
SEEING: my ceiling fans spin and spin and spin

I've had a weird ass week, y'all. I had a falling out with one of my oldest friends — indeed, a family member I thought I had shown up for when it mattered most. Alas, the severance has served as a reminder that we can love and love and give and give, but we won't always receive in return.

And I guess that was never the point, right? We don't give to get. We love because we are love — because it radiates outward even when the darkness tries to stomp it out. I've been feeling angry, resentful, vengeful. I hate the petty side of me that wants to bite back, but I have to remember who I am and who I want to be. I'm a lover.

Beyond my personal dramas, the lover girl in me has been distraught by the headlines. In California, over 17,000 people remain on evacuation notice as wildfires rage in Southern California. A deadly strain of Ebola is wreaking havoc in Central Africa, killing dozens of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. New York is experiencing its first heat wave of the year, and summer hasn't even arrived. South Asia is also broiling from the heat. I'm scared for what the next few months will bring.

But fear shall not win over here! Why? For one, the U.S. is in the throes of primary election season. Donald Trump may be destroying the executive branch, but local governments are where it's at. In Philadelphia, Rep. Chris Rabb — a Democratic socialist, baby! — won his primary despite heavy opposition from the Democratic establishment and its beloved pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC. Rabb's platform includes decarbonizing the economy, building a local Civil Climate Corps, and opposing data centers.

At a time when Trump and his goons are attempting to erode the people's right to vote, I'm relishing in the victories. Yes, even the small ones. I'm basking in the light. I'm soaking in the aggressive ass sun (even as I sweat profusely from the confines of my home)!

I'm letting go of what's not for me. I'm making space for what's already mine. 🌀

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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.

Heavy rain struck central China, leading to deadly floods that killed at least 21 people.

At least 104 people are dead after a storm brought rain and hail to India's most populous state last week.

This week's heat wave in the Northeast has already left at least two people dead in the Philadelphia region.

Currently Reading

If you enjoyed last week's newsletter, Emily Atkin also dug into hantavirus and its climate connections for HEATED last week.

Rachel Monroe wrote a gorgeous long-form piece for the New Yorker about the Texans who don't want to see a border wall in Big Bend.

AI could be more sustainable. WIRED's Molly Taft speaks to an expert who lays out how.

Adam Mahoney hits us with the truth we need, always. For Capital B, he writes: "That May 16, 2025, tornado system was the most destructive tornado to carve through an American city in over a decade. It damaged more than 10,000 properties, killing and injuring residents along its path and leveling entire blocks holding generations of Black history. Outside the city, it barely registered as news."

Alleen Brown paints a portrait of Indigenous activist Nick Tilsen's yearslong fight against bogus-ass charges. Her latest is in Drilled.

Poetry

LETTING GO
she says I am a bad friend
a person who doesn't care
I don't love her kids, she says

well, then, why was I always there?

in crisis and in emergency
in concert and in celebration
the good, the bad, the ugly
I rarely missed an important occasion

but she soured my most special days
with a pout, a sigh, a public complaint
not once or twice
but over years and years

and yet I stayed
I sucked it up
this is friendship, I'd say
this is family

but now I walk away
with a burden lifted
I tried to talk it out
but she wouldn't listen

I can smile without the worry
of her envious gaze
I can rejoice without the weight
of her miserable haze

I'll miss her little ones
their smiles would make my day
but I have to trust
that they, too, will be OK

-ylf-

- Yessenia xx