In Case of Emergency, Break Glass

Leia and Charlie in Baker City on a clear day in March. Wildfire smoke in July, 2024.

Wildfires are raging in Eastern Oregon. Dry and hot conditions set the stage. Near Baker City, the Durkee fire merged with the Cow Valley fire. It is so large and extreme that it has generated its own weather, a pyrocumulus cloud (thunderstorm) created by the fire’s heat with lightning strikes that can spark new fires. The air quality in Baker City is usually pristine at around 25 ppm. On July 21, 2024 it was a hazardous 155 ppm.

July saw record heat across the country. Heat is continuing in August. I’m watering the trees around my house, hoping to help them withstand the soaring temperatures and low humidity; feeling like the Dutch child with their hand in the dike, hoping to hold back the raging sea.

Is it resilience or denial or delusion to adjust to changing conditions? Our goal is to provide inspiration and actionable information about technological solutions, policies, and groups taking action to address the root causes of climate change and other consequences of our extractive society. We want to illuminate avenues to pursue that can make a difference through individual and collective action.

Durkee Fire, (AP photo) Baker City Smoke (L Tyrell photo). This is an emergency!

We have felt reluctant to advocate for partisan politics in Minerva’s newsletter. But we are in a break glass in case of emergency moment. Right now, the most urgent task is to ensure that Americans elect pro-science, pro-web-of-life leaders. Policy, government investment, and regulation are powerful levers to make systemic change. Whom we elect, from school boards to statehouses to the Whitehouse and Congress, matters more than ever.  

Please make sure that you are registered to vote. Many states have been purging inactive voters from their roles. Encourage your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues to vote. We offer some organizations that you could volunteer with or support that are mobilizing voters across the country.
Action is an antidote to anxiety. Acting together generates joy.

Let’s create our own pyrocumulus weather system to ignite beneficial change.