A Climate Change Education

For most of September 2020, I was living the dichotomy of sheltering at home because of the pandemic, but also ready to flee any second as a result of the Bobcat Fire. We were in the evacuation warning zone for several weeks, with our most important stuff packed in plastic laundry hampers by the front door ready to grab on the run.

This is a sunrise photo from my front yard on September 9th, three days after the fire started.

On September 18th, Ruth Bader Ginsburg died.

On September 19th, I saw this prescient tweet:

(Not that I've ever thought I would be a billionaire. And calling myself a potential refugee would be insulting, given my inherent privilege. But I sure as hell was at risk of climate change displacement at that moment, so it resonated.)

On September 24th, the evacuation order was lifted.

On September 25th, it was my 45th birthday.

Somewhere amid all this upheaval, I realized that I don't know anything about climate change. I understand it on a very surface level; I've read the occasional news story and seen a couple of documentaries. And that isn't sufficient. So I'm holding myself accountable here to get educated and share resources in 2021. (I know, I know, middle aged white woman gets belatedly outraged about something, so she reads a book. I'll try to take it beyond that.)

On December 18th — five days ago — the Bobcat Fire was declared fully contained.

We're still sheltering at home because of the pandemic.