Michelle Bitting: The Great Fire
When plague grips a grand city in its pitch and airless
fist, flames bore holes in flesh that the rats sing
sweetly through.
Emily E. Schlickman, et al: A case for retreat in the age of fire as wildfires threaten homes in the West
As fire risk rises, is it time to consider managed retreat?
William deBuys: New Mexico’s Megafires Mark a Turning Point
We have entered the Pyrocene, the Epoch of Fire.
Jane Braxton Little: Whiplashed
Hotter days and hotter nights have corkscrewed our weather patterns into spiraling extremes, leaving entire regions around the world jerked from the hottest temperatures they’ve known to the coldest, from devastating fires to disastrous floods. This is uncharted territory and, scientists say, an all-too-grim preview of the future we’re creating for ourselves.
Jane Braxton Little: A Tour Guide to Hell on Earth, Small Town-Style
Climate Change, Up Close and Personal
Tom Engelhardt: Our Not-So-Slow-Motion Apocalypse
A heating planet is a danger, not in some distant time, but right now — yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Rebecca Gordon: The Fire Next Time
If we do succeed in destroying ourselves, it seems increasingly likely that it will be by fire, whether the accelerating heating of the globe over decades, or a nuclear conflagration any time we choose. The good news, the flame of hope, is that we still have time — at least 100 seconds — to prevent it.
Derrick Z. Jackson: Election day is nearing, but there’s no end in sight to Trump’s attacks on science
Will the American electorate end up asking for an encore performance of this full-throated rejection of scientific evidence?
Tom Engelhardt: A Vote for the Apocalypse
Since [Trump] is, in his own fashion, a parody of everything: a politician, a Republican, an autocrat, even a human being, he sums up in some extreme (if eerily satiric) fashion human efforts to destroy our way of life in these years. In truth, fiery and furiously fueled, he’s a historic cloud of smoke and ash over us all.
Paul Christensen: Three Cheers for Autumn
I woke up this morning to a chill in the air. I closed the bedroom windows and shivered into my clothes, then hurried down to the kitchen to consult the … Continue reading
Elizabeth Weil: The Climate Crisis Is Happening Right Now
Record high temperatures. Record fires. Record smoke. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown has a few things to say about the state’s converging apocalypses.
Ellery Akers: We Have the Power to Pull Back from the Brink
I call fire.
And fire answers with its flaming mouth
and strange whining pronunciation
as it clears the underbrush
Susie Cagle: ‘Fire is medicine’| The tribes burn California forests to save them
For millennia, native people have used flames to protect the land. The US government outlawed the process for a century before recognizing its value.
Dani Burlison: What Wildfires Do to Our Minds
A Northern California community offers mental health first aid to survivors of devastating fires. It’s late spring, and I’m hiking Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Sonoma County with therapist, ecopsychologist, … Continue reading
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