Global climate change brought me some personal and unexpected consequences that told me I have a new future.
Back in 2006 when I saw Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” it seemed that climate change (known in those days as ‘global warming’) was somewhere else and way in the future. Now it’s here and directly affecting me.
Climate Change Gets Personal
Early in November this year (2022) I waited at a Central Washington airport to fly to San Francisco. The weather was “unseasonably cloudy and cold”, delaying the incoming flight for three and a half hours. Because of the delay, most of my fellow passengers had taken the bus shuttle to Seattle. I didn’t, and boarded the plane with the 15 remaining passengers. To balance the plane’s light load, we were told to sit together behind the wings. Then the crew shut down the lights and air while they sprayed deicing compound over the plane.
For about 40 minutes, in dark stillness, we breathed each other’s collective virus and bacteria stew. I thoughtlessly didn’t wear a mask. Back home and two days later, I was feverish, coughing and exhausted, and admitted myself to Emergency where they administered every conceivable test. Four hours later they discharge me with, “You have an upper respiratory virus infection. We don’t know what kind.”
Six weeks later the cough lessened, and my energy level was returning to normal. During the infection’s first two weeks I had brain fog and succumbed to an online scam — $500. Did climate change bring me six weeks of infection and being scammed?
Another Climate Change Consequence
Christmas 2021 I flew from Central Washington via Seattle to San Francisco. “Unseasonable weather” that canceled thousands of flights nationally and stranded me in Seattle for three nights, convinced me not to take holiday flights again. Sure enough, this year, Christmas 2023, thousands of flights were also canceled nationally because of “unseasonable (and deadly) weather.”
Is “unseasonable weather” the current euphemism for climate change? Is “unseasonal” now seasonal? Will “The worst weather nationally in the last 50 years” soon become “The worst weather nationally in the last 12 months.” Will “Once-in-a-generation storms” vanish?
The New Normal
These people-induced changes from dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (creating climate change and my virus infection) or bringing wild animals into Huanan markets (creating a multitrillion-dollar global pandemic, killing millions) are now normal. While we expect changes, each particular new consequence comes as a surprise.
In 2017, “The most destructive fire in California’s history”, leveled the Santa Rosa houses of two friends. They survived, but the term “most destructive” didn’t. Increasingly destructive forest fires are now expected every summer.
How do we get used to expecting the unexpected and anticipating the unanticipated? How do we pay attention to what we don’t expect — and might not even see, even when it’s right in front of us?
It’s Invisible
I didn’t see I was in an infection petri dish when cooped up in the rear of that Alaska Airlines plane. The implication of my situation was invisible to me. But these unpredictable situations will arrive more often. How can I pay more attention, be more conscious, and see more clearly? How can I take better care?
And just in case I didn’t get the message about expecting the unexpected, last week two close friends were hit with very serious illnesses. I’m reminded that stuff happens, and as Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar says, “death will come when it will come.” The unexpected wings in — from the outside with climate change, and from the inside with too many birthdays.
You?
My guess is that climate change (and too many birthdays) has also brought you consequences you didn’t imagine ten years ago. If you’d like to share, please do.
Thank you for reading.
Barry
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