The planet is on fire. Everywhere. Where it’s not on fire, it’s flooding, or insane drought, or ice caps melting, or a plague of locusts. It’s biblical, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better. Just worse. And the people with power to make things better certainly aren’t motivated to do the right thing. So where does that leave us? Pretty fucked, I’d say.
I grew up in an immigrant family with limited funds. We had a vegetable garden every summer, saved and reused what we could, and wasted little. We had a compost in the backyard long before it was common. I hated my turn to empty the bucket into the compost; it stank, and the flies…don’t even get me started. We rarely ate at school for lunch, but on the odd occasion we had to, our sandwiches were packaged in old milk bags. For those not from Ontario, milk comes in one-litre plastic bags, and the plastic is very sturdy. My mom insisted that we wash them out and reuse them for everything from sandwiches to freezing fruits and vegetables. Now, I appreciate all of this composting, recycling, and reusing. At the time, I was so embarrassed to show up with a sandwich in that bag; it was obvious it was a milk bag. It certainly didn’t help that we never had white bread or peanut butter either. Always a hearty rye with some odorous filling.
My family has been doing their part for as long as I can remember (which would be the 70’s). And we still do. But how can reusing milk bags or composting on such a small level make any difference when billionaires are forcing water-guzzling, polluting data centres to be built at rapid-fire speed with little to no resistance from any government? That and all the wars are creating such enormous emissions—our small efforts feel useless. Will I stop doing what I can? No, but honestly, I am feeling rather hopeless about the whole situation.
Here in the south of France, it’s been so much hotter than normal, for much longer. We’re lucky that we’ve had some rain here and there, and apparently a very wet winter and spring helped the situation. Since I arrived, we’ve had 46 days of temperatures above 30 degrees. Of those, 29 days have been 35 or higher, and only one day below 30, coming in at 27. Anyone who knows me knows I love the heat. But this is extreme. I’ve been fine, getting out early on the bike, but for those without a cool place or a pool, it must be unbearable.
Of course there are fires throughout France. The other day while I was working, I kept hearing planes overhead, flying rather low. Finally, I got a look at them, and there were three water bombers. The next day I saw a Canadair. It seems never-ending, and it breaks my heart to think how we’ve abused this beautiful, miraculous planet of ours. The more time you spend in nature, the clearer it becomes. We are so lucky to have such a spectacular home. But for how long, who’s to say?
