Rebecca Solnit: 'We're Defending Revolutions'

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LISTENING: to my keyboard's creamy sound
FEELING: overwhelmed by work and life!
SEEING: the sun set outside :')

There's something magical about women. I love being a woman. I love being a woman who loves other women. I adore my man — he makes me feel like the sexist woman alive — but women are irresistible. The way we sway our hips and purse our lips. The way we dance like no one is watching. The way we don't let our menstrual cycles stop us. Even if we are bleeding, we show up. Even when our bodies age and enter the next phase of womanhood, perimenopause, we persevere. We take care of our children and our neighbors. We feed, and we nourish—with our hands and our hearts.

Oh, how I love being a woman.

The climate movement, in particular, would be nothing without the women who weave its various threads together. I'm thinking of Elizabeth Yeampierre. Or Tamara Toles O'Laughlin. Or Ayisha Siddiqa and Xiye Bastida. Or Mika Tosca and Hebah Kassem.

I could list names all day long, but how about we hear from one woman I recently interviewed: Rebecca Solnit. She's an author many of you likely know and love. Her new book just came out — my preorder is awaiting my pick up at my local bookstore. "The Beginning Comes After the End" is what we all need right now.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this nugget from our interview, which will publish in Loam Magazine later this year. Solnit emphasized that, indeed, the revolution is already underway. We must now fight to defend the progress that the right is trying to undo with its full violent might:

"We're defending revolutions because to change the status of women from what it was for more than 2,000 years in the Western world is revolutionary. It's why the Epstein files are making such a stir. We went from a world where women and girls voices didn't matter to one where, sometimes, sort of, to a little bit they do."

This is a woman's world now. I've had my taste of freedom. So have all the other women and girls bringing clean energy, climate justice, and safety to their communities. I'm thinking of the women in Iran, who now have to contend with literal war alongside an attack on their liberties. A sisterhood cannot be broken. Not even with bombs and airstrikes. 🌀

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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.

The death toll from Brazil's floods is now up to 70.

New York's awful cold spell resulted in seven more deaths than previously reported. In New Jersey, the total number of lives lost to the weather is at least 35.

Currently Reading

Fascinated to read about how people in the U.S. are fleeing in record numbers. The Wall Street Journal's Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson got the story.

ProPublica is doing an incredible job following the children of Dilley Detention Center in Texas. Kudos to the team.

Sabrina Imbler is my favorite wildlife writer. They must on Punch, our favorite zoo monkey: "Don't worry about Punch; he'll be fine. Worry about us."

Emily Atkin of HEATED is launching a podcast. Excited for it!

I've been working with Zoe Keziah Mendelson on a new project, and I'm obsessed with their call to abandon Instagram. I wish I were this strong.

Society needs more good journalism. Look no further than Whitney Bauck, who always does such powerful reporting. Her story for The Guardian on a labor rights textile artist is worth the read.

Poetry

I WON THE WORLD LOTTERY

I won the world lottery. I spend my free time getting tattoos. I drink pistachio lattes and ride my bike to yoga. I won the world lottery. I don't know the sound of a bombs or lost limbs. I've never known real hunger. my mom once did. she'd eat garlic on tortillas. she still can't stomach the smell. but not me. I know only the nausea of gluttony. I won the world lottery, but I feel as though I've lost. there's so much pain and suffering. I'm too heartbroken these days to react or even to cry. I won the world lottery. you probably did, too. but what if we were born in rubble? what if we had a single pair of shoes? what if we spent our childhoods in tents—refugees who never make it on the news. I won the world lottery. most people don't even have a clue. but I do. I was merely lucky. weren't you? weren't you?

- Yessenia