California She is Screaming

They tell us to be the change we wish to see,

But all I see, over and over and over is complacency.

California, bleeding, crying, she is screaming.

She is letting us see the force of change we need to be.

Climate change drivers are rolling us towards the cliffs,

And we are in the passenger seat, providing her a hype playlist instead of pushing her to slow down.

Because no, slowing down the ever-growing CO2 and GHGs that choke us when we’re cruising in our convertibles

Would demand that we acknowledge that fortune isn’t everything

Too focused on the economic climate to realize that

Our “business as usual” is hurting our home

If we looked at climate models instead of fashion models, we would see that

Our “business as usual” results in regional increase of 4.3°F by midcentury

By end of century we see that rise sky high

8.2°F hotter, when we already don’t have access to drinking water₁

and have to redirect it from sources that are meant to sustain other lands.

What does that mean for her future? Our future?

A warming climate means shorter, warmer winters.

Our snow turns to rain. Snowpack disappears – 30 to 60 percent of it₁. Gone.

The winter sports we love so much? Gone.

Those won’t be here when we want an escape from our lukewarm winter.

And our food security? We say goodbye too. Because our California snow is a reservoir

A reservoir of hopes and dreams of a sustainable future that is melting at the same rate as the climate is changing,

A reservoir that feeds into rivers and streams we love to use recreationally,

A reservoir that supplies water for our agricultural systems, putting food on our tables.

But let’s reserve our opinions for the facts and look at what forces are driving us towards California’s version of Dante’s 9 circles of Hell.

Greenhouse gas emissions₂ – something we’ve been warned about since the 70s at the very least

When our parents were going to protests, knowing they were hurting humanity’s future children

They are rising beyond measure. Our atmosphere is drowning

our oceans absorbing the indigestible excess

Our oceans are suffocating in carbon dioxide₂,

acidifying the water and making it uninhabitable

Marine heat waves, so warm and inhospitable they kill our kelp forests,

dissolving shells, losing its capacity to store carbon for the rest of the planet₂

So what are California’s 9 circles of hell

1. Forest trees dying
2. Vector-borne diseases
3. Snowmelt
4. Extreme heat events
5. Glacier change
6. Harmful algal blooms
7. Sea level rise
8. Drought
9. Wildfire₂

Like Dante on his journey through the inferno, how do we imprison Lucifer in ice to escape this hell?

Now is the time to adapt or die, to use California’s inferno as a force of shifting the social paradigm

To explore how to craft ways out of the climate change catastrophe

The constant concerns that cruelly aren’t taken seriously by the kings of capitalism

Because when we look at the models of our species distribution, considering our 9 circles of hell,

We’ll be corralled into smaller areas, with fragmented arable land,

Not enough resources to sustain a population that only continues to grow

While our technology prevents us from being a threatened species,

We threaten thousands of others. Pushing destruction down their throats by our own greed

Increasing carbon dioxide ppm at the fastest rate we’ve ever seen – to almost double preindustrial measure

Trying to douse the already fanned flames with greenhouse gases that function as a blanket,

A heat cycle exacerbated

If we can’t adapt, we’re vulnerable.

Vulnerability is the sum of our sensitivity and exposure to the consequences of climate change, minus our capacity to adapt

Why aren’t we adapting? Why aren’t we mitigating? Why aren’t we protecting each other?

Our children, our neighbors, our ecosystem that nourishes us beyond our wildest dreams… ?

Instead, we let our brothers and sisters, nonbinary siblings and every other creature in California and across the planet be at risk of burning in LITERAL infernos

Because while we sit and theorize about whether climate change is impacting us, the collective weeps because

We are breathing in the ash of wildfire.

Swimming in the pollution of burned buildings,

Buried under mud from unstable soil because of vegetation loss.

And there are the two questions we need to ask ourselves:

How we adapt, and how we mitigate

What can we do to adapt our lives when confronting a changing climate? Because we are not individuals, but part of a losing collective. And so…

We prioritize protected areas to increase connectivity and support functional ecosystems

We connect fragmented land to promote the same

We diversify our agricultural crops and gardens for drier, hotter conditions

We complete more prescribed burns

We recycle and reduce used water

We move low-lying coastal communities…

These are just SOME of the aspects we as Californians need to consider,

With our mountains and our fertile inlands, our coasts and our forests.

And if we ask ourselves, what can I do to mitigate?

Well, that’s easy, isn’t it?

We can commit to 10 climate commandments

1. Buy local
2. Support small businesses
3. Divest from harmful corporations where possible
4. Use public transportation when possible
5. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
6. Decrease our carbon footprint
7. Protect and restore ecosystems from loss to preserve ecosystem function including carbon sequestration
8. Heterogenize agricultural systems
9. Place political pressure on our local and federal government
10. Talk to each other

It is so far from impossible to make a difference

Mitigation scenarios show that instead of 8.2°F increase in temperature, we would see only a 3°F increase₁.

We can make that happen

If we follow our commandments

If we take responsibility

If we communicate

Unify

Litigate

Prepare

Respect

Love one another

Because California is bleeding, crying, she is screaming:

Adapt

Or die.

References:

1. Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. 2015. “Climate Change in the Los Angeles Region.” University of California, Los Angeles.

2. Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. 2022. “Indicators of Climate Change in California.” OEHHA, State of California

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Yulee Haimovitch works in wildlife medicine and studies Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences at Oregon State University. She is passionate about environmental justice and equity. She serves as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Highland Hall Waldorf School, and believes in the power of education as a means of social change.