Dreaming the World

Another day of heat and humidity following a stormy weekend. We have finally received enough rain to revive the gardens and re-green the world, and more rain is promised for later in the week.

We made a quick trip to Vermont over the weekend. Driving up on Friday afternoon we ran into a severe thunderstorm which flooded the interstate, resulting in our taking a long detour which began in streets covered by a foot of water. On the way home yesterday we drove slowly for the first couple of hours in torrential rain. Both trips took much longer than planned.

Saturday the Vermont landscape was obscured by thick smoke from Canadian wild fires. The Weather Service advised everyone, particularly those of us with asthma, to remain indoors, which was impossible. I am grateful that I managed to get through the day with only a minor asthma flair. Yesterday the air quality was a rain-washed good. Northern Vermont has been under air quality alerts for much of the past few days but we are told today is lovely.

Poor air quality has become the norm for New England summers. Fortunately, our region is subject to frequent, often rapid, changes in the weather, a phenomenon which long ago gave rise to the aphorism: “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute.”

As the climate has rapidly changed the region’s weather has become more stagnant, giving rise to longer, hotter, more muggy summers which have, in turn, driven a new need for air conditioning, even in Vermont. Not long ago one knew that any stretch of steamy days was likely to pass quickly and flooding was a rare event. Not so now. Heat, drought and flood have become the norm, as has smoke from climate change driven wild fires in Canada and the western U.S..

It’s hurricane season which brings some concern here, enough so that the city has set up electric billboards which remind us to prepare now. We get similar messages from our utility providers and the good folks who insure our houses.

It’s been several years since we have had a major hurricane here on the coast, so we are now well overdue. Our insurer has been raising rates in preparation and we anticipate the inevitable “Big One!” will create an insurance rate crisis. Perhaps the time will come when only those who can afford to lose their homes will be able to live here.

The federal government seems to have decided that if its agencies refuse to talk about climate change no one will notice. Well, people notice but without information many seem to struggle to connect their lived experiences to the larger problem of human created climate change. Regardless, the rapid nature of climate change here in New England has left many of us with a sort of climate whip-lash which promises to only become worse as the climate continues to devolve.

It was a hot, sultry, stormy night: