@coyote Beautiful essay! I really love how you articulate the complexity and non-linear nature of grief/grieving the change in climate. It is such a huge issue and interconnected with everything we experience here on the Earth that it cannot be reduced to headlines or simple, singular solutions. As you so eloquently stated, "In my experience of growing comfortable with grief, though, I’ve learned that “waking up” is inherently chaotic, prolonged, and potentially violent." The sooner we all realize that, the sooner we can ride the journey together to a better reality.
@coyote Your essay hit just the right note of acceptance yet urge to do and be more. I like that you showed the non linearity of change not only in nature but in humans as well. As the scales of familiarity fall from our eyes we each will grieve, accept and move on to make a more survivable world.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
The new sea level rise data that is coming out will affect some areas more severely. In New Zealand, scientists are projecting that sea-level rise in their biggest urban areas may be double the global average due to seismic activity that causes the land to drop down. So the combination of sea level rise, and falling land amplifies the rise of the sea.
They are projecting that sea rise will be happening two to three decades sooner.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/swifter-rise-sea-level-predicted
@jeanne-mayell Have you read any of the writings by Edgar Cayce about earth changes? I read about him many years ago and the parts I remember are that the Mississippi River would split the US in two and both coasts would be greatly diminished...but that Virginia Beach would remain above water. I think most of his work was written in the 1920s or earlier. We've been ignoring the warnings a long time.
Cayce's earth changes are pretty amazing, given he was seeing a dramatically new map of the U.S., which will likely occur if all the glaciers melt and we see 230 feet sea level rise. And I should add that I feel that all of the glaciers will melt. If someone were to draw the new map of the US with 230 feet sea level rise, it might resemble Cayce's map.
I think Cayce's personal bias got the best of him when he said that the entire Eastern seaboard would be lost to the sea, but that somehow Virginia Beach where he lived would be spared. Meanwhile, these cities will disappear: NYC, Miami, Washington DC., Mumbai, India, Sáo Paulo, Brazil, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Chenai and Buenos Aires, to name a few.
@matildagirl On the U.S. eastern seaboard, from North Caroline to Maine, we are experiencing much faster sea level rise, perhaps 3 times the global average.
Ignorance was bliss once upon a time.
I guess if some areas really start to show sea level rising like your Eastern seaboard the powers that be might start reacting and changing things a bit earlier to maybe help slow it down.
It took thousands and thousands of years for Man to evolve to the present time and a mighty short time to be stuffing it up.
Actually, because climate change works on an exponential (accelerating) scale, by the time people actually see the rising seas, it will be too late to stop the glaciers from melting. We have to escalate the narrative. It will take a miracle or some new undiscovered carbon capture technique. There are scientists studying the impact of spewing aerosols into the atmosphere to block the sun.