Sometimes, I Just Sigh
LISTENING: to some WILLOW
FEELING: in a really awful mood today
SEEING: my cute Divoom speaker's art
Some days, I wake up and just know the day ahead will utterly suck. Maybe I didn't get a good night's rest because of stressful dreams. Maybe the shower curtain rod crumbled to the floor first thing in the morning. Maybe my period is a week away, and I can just feel the irritation boiling in my blood.
Today is one of those days, so let's get to it. I want a sandwich. 🙁
Welcome to Possibilities, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m Yessenia Funes, and I'm yet again reminded of how disappointing the president is.
Remember when Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin only voted in favor of President Joe Biden's landmark Inflation Reduction Act if the president solidified the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia? Well, the methane gas pipeline's construction has been ongoing despite outcries from environmental activists. Now, state officials in Virginia have asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to keep it from going into service until all appropriate tests and checks have been done.
Atmos
On May 1, pipeline operators failed a test on the 300-mile-long piece of infrastructure — yet the company is still pushing FERC to authorize the pipeline for operation by May 23. Efforts to stop the controversial project continue.
One protester — who only went by Finn in the press release I received — locked himself to a piece of equipment on a worksite last week on May 8. According to the group Appalachians Against Pipelines, his action stopped work for 11 hours on the site.
As part of Finn's civil disobedience, he also raised a banner that read, "Free Palestine No Pipelines No Prisons No Genocide." Well, good old President Biden just approved another $1 billion in weapons aid for Israel. Again, I am so, so disappointed in the president I voted for. He gave us a climate law that sacrificed frontline communities... again. And he won't stop supporting a genocide that doesn't offer an end in sight.
Finn released a statement about the connection between Appalachia and Palestine:
"And this place — our home — is being forever altered by this pipeline. I've been thinking a lot about home. About the 1.7 million Gazans displaced from their homes as 34,000 have been killed. About the thousands of Native Tribes stripped of their ancestral homelands. About the towns and cities hollowed out of long-time residents to serve as tourist destinations, wealthy enclaves, places for investors to park their money. This same logic is present in this pipeline."
The loss of home is a feeling too many people know, as Finn notes in his statement. The reality is that this grief is one felt disproportionately by Black and Brown communities across the globe. Whether it's the Maasai in East Africa being pushed off their land by a carbon credit company. Or the Palestinians facing never-ending assault by the Israeli government.
Will it take all of us losing the only home we've known — Planet Earth — to start caring about others? I sure hope not. 🌀
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 disasters like these.
The number of deaths in Brazil from the awful flooding in the south of the country has reached nearly 150 people.
In Afghanistan, flash floods have killed at least 300 people since Friday.
Last week, dangerous storms in the South left one person in Tennessee dead. In Florida, at least another person died.
Over the weekend, heavy rains unleashed flash floods in western Indonesia, where at least 28 people have died.
Currently Reading
Yo, y'all really need to stop buying from Shein!
This incredible New York Times investigation about homeowners insurance reminds me that car insurance companies are also increasing their rates, and I can't help but wonder how climate change is factoring in there, too.
My girl Justine Calma at The Verge reminds us of how important — and dangerous — the work of environmental journalists remains. Please support the environmental journalists you admire. Our work is not easy.
Also, unrelated—but Hulu's "Under the Bridge" drama has been my latest obsession now that I've finished Sarah J. Mass's "Throne of Glass" series (and have nothing left of hers to read). Definitely give it a watch if you need a new show!
Poetry
no flame
can burn
___forever
except for the ones
that hum
___inside
inside our spirit
beneath our
___feet
inside the Earth's core
where no one can feel its
___heat
-ylf-
See you next week. xx
- Yessenia
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