Dreaming the World

Today is Indigenous People’s Day in much of North America. Its also Thanksgiving Day in Canada! We give a warm shout out to all of our friends in Canada!

This weekend is another round of “No Kings” protests around the country. Do you know that one of the biggest drivers for colonists, in the then British colonies, to declare independence was the King of England’s refusal to allow them to annex and claim more Native land? We Natives were much better off with a king. Like so much that is American, the No Kings protests are unintentionally rooted in greed, racism, and genocide.

I had my Covid and flue vaccines yesterday and am so lethargic that I have no desire to go out into the elements. Its nice to just watch the wind and rain.

We are in day three of much needed rain. A nor’easter is sitting just below us, spinning. The result is that we have intermittent rain, often heavy. We are forecast to receive several inches by the time the system moves away tomorrow night; that would certainly help relieve our ongoing drought conditions. I wish the storm would meander slowly up the coast and bring rain to all the communities north of us who have had almost no rain for months.

Our region is increasingly given to summer drought. We are hardly alone as North America dries out due to climate change. The Arctic and all of Canada are especially hard impacted, with enormous consequences for agriculture and a host of ecosystems.

The things is, the problem isn’t local; most of the planet is drying, and quickly. Food insecurity is increasing for humans and animals alike. The new reality for plants and animals, including people, that live on land is one of thirst and hunger.

Hunger and mal nutrition are taking a substantial toll on marine life as well, as overfishing and climate change cause rapid population declines in a wide spectrum of species, crucially including zooplankton.

There are those in charge of governments around the world who deny climate change, or normalize it by suggesting we will gain more than we lose. As the vast grain producing regions of Russia, Canada, and the United States dry out, and the yields from them sharply decline, it is difficult to see where our grain will come from. (Potatoes, a crucial crop in many regions of the world, are also increasingly threatened.)

As North American forests dry out and burn, we lose resources, species, and ecosystems, and hasten global warming.

Of course, those same politicians are well aware of the impacts of their policies. They also imagine that disaster capitalism, while harming most folks and the planet, will make them even richer.