The Remedy

This edition is short and sweet and fully open to all. Support my work and upgrade to paid here for as little as $5 a month.

LISTENING: to some jams
FEELING: hot! it's so hot!
SEEING: the usual boring office things

"Relaxation is the best remedy for fatigue."

One of my yoga teachers tells us this every class. Now, I'm sharing her words with you all. I just got back from a short vacation in Bermuda, where the beaches are pink and the fish are iridescent! I'm still catching up on the news, which never fails to bum me out.

I hope you all are finding space for rest and recovery amid the muck. Today, I'm just sharing a few tidbits from my trip.

Firstly, did you know Bermuda's beaches have pink sand because of the native parrotfish? There are nine species in Bermuda. They're easy to spot because they swim close to shore. Anyway, parrotfish eat the algae off rocks and corals, keeping them healthy, and then poop the waste out as pink sand. Science! I absolutely love it.

On a similar note, Bermuda has some of the world's healthiest coral reef ecosystems. This helps keep the islands safe when hurricanes hit. In general, Bermuda is pretty resilient to hurricanes compared to other Caribbean islands. Many homes are made of stone, not wood, and Bermuda's small size makes it less likely for a hurricane to make landfall there. Plus, lots of power lines are buried underground. You won't see as many as you do out here in the U.S.

But Bermuda isn't without its shit. The islands were once a haven for sea turtles that would feed on the local seagrass. The first time I visited in 2018, I saw at least a dozen sea turtles during a jet ski tour. Words can't describe the awe of seeing so many green shells in the water. My guide told me their numbers are down dramatically. I didn't see any this time around.

I also found out that Bermuda is now the most expensive place to live. It looks like paradise, but the reality is much more complicated for locals, especially the Black families who are still dealing with the legacies of slavery (i.e., income inequality and segregation).

This week, the British territory (or, um, colony?) is celebrating Cup Match, an ode to the abolition of slavery. No one mentioned that part of the holiday's history to me when they brought it up. They only mentioned cricket, the sport that's played every year as part of the tradition. I couldn't tell whether decolonization was a part of the discourse there, but I did meet one man who went off about Donald Trump and the damage he's causing the free world. He was specifically distressed about the destruction of USAID, which used to do work in the Caribbean before Elon Musk and his goonies ruined the program.

Nowhere is safe from the mess our government has made. Not even me and my vacation. But we need joy. We need rest. And we need to log off sometimes to come back stronger. So don't feel guilty for calling out of work or planning that weekend road trip.

Grieve by day and dance by night. Mourn, but don't let that stop you from smiling. Take every chance you can to see the stars. I can't see them here in New York, so it's always a treat when I can look up and remember: There's so much more to this world than our suffering and our pain. There's wonder, too. 🌀

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.

Over the weekend, dangerous rains fell in Nigeria, killing at least 25 people.

Deadly floods hit Beijing Monday, killing at least 38 people.

The firefighter deaths in Turkey has risen to 17 following the devastating wildfires.

At least 30 people are dead in the Philippines, which is reeling from the aftermath of a cyclone.

Currently Reading

I wrote about Alligator Alcatraz for Yale Climate Connections. They even have the story in Spanish. I love writing for them! If you're feeling generous, consider donating to them. Their team is the absolute best.

You can always trust ProPublica to do the story everyone is itching to read. Their team took a look at the Venezuelan men Trump sent over to El Salvador. Trust that this will win them another Pulitzer.

Whitney Bauck has an important story for the Guardian about Zaddy Zohran (aka New York's mayoral candidate) and his proposal to build city-owned grocery stores.

A must-read from Bill McKibben for Mother Jones: "We need to figure out how to keep rooftop solar growing even without the federal tax credits that have spurred it in the recent past. Doing that will require, among other things, unclogging the peculiarly American system of local permitting that has played a huge role in making “going solar” far more expensive than it needs to be."

And Mustafa Santiago-Ali writes for Word in Black about the loss of the EPA's endangerment finding.

Poetry

NIGHT RIDE

the night is chirping
with the songs of the frogs,
but even they can't drown out
the sparkles of the stars—
their devious laughs,
their flirty winks

the stars glisten and they gloat

I look up at them,
and I float
I'm floating
on two wheels with you—
we're speeding

it's you and me,
the star-lit sky,
and the emerald waters
now hidden in shadow
yet glowing by starlight

there's no other place I'd rather be

-ylf-

I'm juggling a few assignments. More soon! xx

- Yessenia