Stories of the Climate Emergency, RCers Experience
Stories from RCers about the impact of climate change around us. Excerpts below, click on title for full version of the story.
California, USA, by Anonymous
I’m a parent of a young child. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA. The wildfires here in our state right now are devastating. Below is my story.
California, USA, by Chris Selig
Now there are fires burning in the Southern and Northern parts of the state. Over 250,000 thousand people have been evacuated from their homes, over 6,500 homes have burned down and many people have been killed or injured. The fires burn so fast and strong that sometimes people's cars catch fire as they are escaping, they die in their cars, they have to abandon their cars and run, or they make it to a shelter and all of the plastic exteriors of the car has melted.
Maine, USA, by Dan Nickerson
I live in Maine the very northeast of the US bordering on New Brunswick and Quebec in Canada and the Atlantic Ocean. At least 12 generations of my ancestors have lived here mostly supported through farming and fishing until recent generations. From that heritage I have a great knowledge of our local environment. I know nearly everything that grows or lives above the ground and much that lives under the earth and sea as well. The harmful change to the natural world is obvious and moving quickly...
SW Nigeria, by Adekunle Akinola
We used to have a stable and predicted weather condition when I was growing up and the major source of income of people in my community is farming. We farm not only to eat but also to sell the farm produce for survival, most people in my community are farmers including my parents so will depend heavily on farming. But in recent times farming has turned out to be so difficult due to unpredictable and total change of the season that we all used to know, for instance we experience heavy rainfall when we are expecting sunlight and will experience extreme hotness instead of rainfall. Unfortunately, most people in my community do not know it is climate change that is responsible for this but rather they believe that, what is happening to us is beyond human reasoning. ...
England, by Caroline New
Here in Britain, it’s been the heatwave, the heatwave, the heatwave. Strange how flooding has not usually been attributed to global warming, but blamed on authorities not dredging or not preparing. But the heatwave really has had an effect on public consciousness.
It used to be difficult to grow basil in England. Fig trees would grow but the figs never got ripe. Blackberries used to ripen in late August and would go on to the end of October. All this has changed. ...
Austin, Texas, USA, Natalie Langham
Here in Texas we have record temperatures this summer. Last year, hurricane Harvey slammed our coastal area, devastating Houston and other places along the coast, causing flooding, death, and billions of dollars in damage. As you might know, global warming is causing hurricanes to become super storms. I recently watched a pretty good video short about it by NPR. ...
Seattle, WA, USA, Diane Shisk
Seattle this morning (and for much of the last two weeks) is blanketed by a thick cover of smoke, blown in from wildfires in British Columbia, Canada and eastern Washington. Hundreds of wildfires are burning through our forests. Years of hotter temperatures and droughts mean that there are more dead trees (from infestations of insects that thrive in warmer temperatures, insufficient water, and too much heat), so fires start more easily and burn rapidly. ...
Puerto Rico, Mike Ishii
There are many Puerto Ricans in New York City where I live, and many of them have families in Puerto Rico that are still dealing with terrible losses of homes, and infrastructure due to the hurricanes from last year. Scientists predict that the pattern of major tropical storms will continue to worsen due to the effects of climate changes over Africa and the Atlantic ocean where these storms evolve. ...
NSW, Australia, Laurel Waddell
Here in Australia we are in the final month of winter (often our coldest month). From our house I can see a bushfire burning in the hills. The fire has so far burnt 7000 hectares. Only a few days ago snow was falling on the other side of the hills as the bushfire burnt out of control. The last fire that burnt “out of control” burnt through a nearby town, only 4 months ago at the end of summer. Our entire state is New South Wales is in drought. ...
Rhode Island, USA, Betsy Beach
For the past seven years I have regularly walked and photographed both the woods trails and coastal areas of the state of Rhode Island on the East Coast of the United States. Increasingly I have found beach areas impassable due to rising tides and the greater frequency of “king tides” where the water reaches a level in its highest range for the year. ...
NSW, Australia, Sandy Wilder
Here we are in middle of winter and in NSW we have 100% drought. Last week there were 60 bushfires raging. Farmers have no feed for their animals and hay is being trucked across the country. Many farmers are STILL in denial about CC even so! We have a national government about to fall apart because the prime minister tried to put through a meagre policy to limit emissions and reduce power costs and the far right wingers are about to bring him undone. ...
Oregon, USA, Marjorie Smith
We have had several weeks of hazy sky, due to the smoke from huge wildfires in California, and more recently in southern Oregon. Yesterday the wind shifted, and we are having three days of more intense smoke from fires in British Columbia. The sun is a dull orange disk in the morning and evening sky. ...
Santa Rosa, CA, USA, Maria Solarez,
Last October I was evacuated when the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa, California came within 200 yards from my apartment complex. There was no warning and the fires moved quickly in the night, over hills and through homes. The daytime sky was dark brown over the burning neighborhoods and, although there were sunny days one could look right at the sun because of the thick smoke. I lived in Oakland on a friends couch for a week. I came home and tossed all the food in my refrigerator and freezer because the power was still out when I returned. I waited for 4 more days to have electricity and gas. I made some new friends at my local evacuation center where I went for meals and hot showers. ...
Akwa Nigeria, Nwankwo Chinedu Odidika
The projection is scary and if we did not do anything there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans by 2050, just 32 years away. Every year, more than eight million tonnes of harmful plastic waste used by man end up in the oceans. I urged the world to beat plastic pollution noting that “we all have a role to play in protecting our only home. ...
Copenhagen, Denmark, Susanne Langer
I would like to start with Greenland that was colonized by Denmark in 1721. This lasted until 1953 where Greenland was given partly independence, and after a popular vote in 1979 homerule with its own government. The history of colonization was not known and seen as as brutal as in many other places of the world which is part of Danish self-image: We were never really bad, our ways of oppression was more kind than the other European countries, which is, of course, a lie when you look a bit deeper. ...
Southern California, USA, Suvan Geer
Last year my husband and I were ordered to evacuate when yet another fire roared through the hills near our city. We were safe but not everyone we know was that lucky. When fires rage in Southern California smoke from the different fires backs up against the mountains turning the air a cloudy yellow, sometimes for days. Asthma has become one of the main reasons children and elders are going to the emergency rooms. I have been watching this year as coyote, bobcat, hawks and other animals that lost their lands in the nearby fires come into our area to hunt pets and each other for food. ...
Nigeria, Chioma Okonkwo
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has warned that 12 states in Nigeria may face severe flooding in the days ahead. In Lagos Nigeria a non-stop rain for over 7 days now most places have no access road presently, most are homeless due to the effect of the rain. Business activities slowed down. These and more are some of the reports I got from our chat over the week end. We are in this together is my word to all our members. ...
Elders, by Vivian MacClurg
One observation I have made regarding the impact of higher temperatures in our daily lives. People are becoming less active, that is, staying indoors more as the heat and humidity drains their energy. This will affect their health and stamina. Recently I have noticed this happens more so to people growing older (at least they are commenting on this more). People with discretionary income (money left over after paying all the necessary bills, like food, rent, health care, etc.) are able to continue their physical activity in air conditioned homes/health clubs, etc. ...
Santa Cruz, California, USA, Nancy Faulstich
People who are working outside are directly experiencing extreme weather. Others who spend most of their time inside are more protected and less aware of the changes. Many people work picking raspberries which are grown in hoop houses under plastic. It can be 10-20 degrees hotter under the plastic. People are getting dehydrated, fainting, going to hospital, or losing pay if sent home. ...
Disabled people, Marsha Saxton
I’m working with the state of California in a project to engage with “vulnerable populations” (disabled, elderly, poor people, etc.) to improve the transportation and housing/building resilience for disaster preparedness and climate change impact. People dependent upon public transportation have a particular vulnerability as often in disasters, public transport is canceled or fails. Sea level rise around the San Francisco bay (by eight inches in the last 100 years) has begun to release toxic waste that had been buried. Sadly but not surprisingly, these toxic waste dumps are underneath low-income housing, affecting resident’s health, and requiring whole communities to be displaced. ...
Norway, Brita Helleborg
I am living in Norway, in the north of Europe. Last summer it was a very cold and wet summer, and it was difficult for the farmers to harvest in the autumn because of the wet areas on their field. I heard on the radio a farmer talking about the root vegetables. They could be eaten fresh, but there were drowned so they could not be stored. Normally these vegetables are fine to be stored all through the winter and the next spring. ...
Madison, Wisconsin, USA, Joshua Feyen
Last week, my city received 15 inches of rain (38 cm) over a 12-hour period. This "100-year" rain event resulted in unprecedented flooding throughout the city. Our lakes are swollen and a dam is threatened with overflow or worse, bursting. Low-lying areas outside the city are inundated with water because the ground is saturated and the rivers have nowhere to take the extra water. In the city, streets near the lakes and low-lying roads are closed due to flooding.