Climate Week Highs & Lows
COVID-19 didn't get me this year, so Climate Week is in full effect.
LISTENING: to this week's coffee shop banter near the Javitz Center
FEELING: excited about my next Climate Week event
SEEING: New York City carry on
I don't know how many of y'all listen to the songs I add here when y'all read, but I do apologize in advance for how explicit this week's is. This is my current hype song, and boy, do I need the energy!
It's Climate Week in New York, and ya' girl is tired. But we out here! If you remember, I got COVID-19 last year, so my Climate Week was a flop. This time around, my feelings have been all over the place. On one hand, the news has been killing me. On the other, I've gotten to see friends and meet sources. I guess that's just part of life, right? Balancing the highs and lows? Embracing both? Even when it hurts? Even when it burns?
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Welcome to Possibilities, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m Yessenia Funes, and I'm here to give you the low down on what's been going on this week — in my world and beyond.
I wanted to start first with what's been bumming me out because, sigh, there is plenty. And when we're thinking about the kind of world we want to build — one where clean energy powers our homes and where prisons are abolished — we need to confront today's problems so we know how to dismantle them.
So, bad news? Here we go:
- On Tuesday, the state of Missouri executed Marcellus Williams, who was a 55-year-old Black man convicted in 1998 for killing a woman. In recent weeks, however, his attorneys raised questions over his trial and evidence, fighting for his innocence. Activists decried the execution as a modern-day lynching.
- In Florida, thousands are under evacuation orders as Hurricane Helene powered up to become the strongest storm we've seen so far this year. The state has reportedly moved just a few incarcerated people in the storm's path but has largely decided to shelter in place, per Fight Toxic Prisons, an advocacy organization focused on the intersection of prison abolition and climate/environmental justice. (Shout out to fellow EJ reporter Adam Mahoney whose initial tweet pointed me in the right direction!)
- Human rights group Global Witness put out its annual report on environmental and land defender deaths. Last year, 196 defenders were killed. The last 10 years have seen little improvement on the issue with over 2,100 killed between 2012 and 2023.
- EEE, the mosquito-borne illness plaguing the northeastern U.S., has caused one death in New York. Mosquitoes always come for me, so I'm pretty freaked out by this one. Anyone got a repellant they like that works?
So, yeah, my brain is a little overwhelmed by all that bad stuff. On the bright side, there's plenty of good to keep in mind, especially this week. I've been taking part in several panels and discussions — meeting people whose very existence reminds me that the needle can always move and injustice is not impenetrable.