Wow, crazy. Weird weather everywhere.

02/08/2026

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard that this month; it’s February in Northern Utah and it’s also 60°F (the title of this post is a text from my uncle who lives in Shanghai, where it’s 0°C). As someone who is familiar with climate research, biodiversity loss, etc., I’m unsure of how to react to everyone going “huh, that’s funny,” as flash freezes wreak havoc on the east coast and heat sweeps the west. I’m too familiar with prehistory to be surprised–a couple hundred million years ago a critical mass of flora also terraformed the planet, producing too much oxygen, which caused a mass extinction. Life ebbs and flows. It’s devastating and lovely all at once. Horrific and beautiful.

I’ve already written extensively about the climate crisis in my essay Symbioticism. The sources I used are all publicly accessible with zero paywalls. The research is directly in front of our faces. The Earth is on track to be 4°C hotter by the end of the century. For decades scientists have pleaded with officials to limit ourselves to 2°C warming, citing evidence from every field. Solutions have been presented and ignored. In 2026 science is not only being ignored, but criticized.

There are a million-billion reasons why this has happened. A lot of it has to do with greed, prejudice, and deregulation of markets to the point of insanity (quite literally). But here’s the thing: people are catching on. We aren’t idiots. The same people who benefit from destroying the Earth are losing their grip. Against any odds I’m optimistic. There are plenty of people who are aware of the crisis. Every day more people become aware of who is perpetuating the ever-encroaching crises around us. As that happens, more of us also get creative, adapt and discover ways of navigating the changing world. I feel one day we will understand the art of Living and Dying well in a dynamic World. Stay with the trouble.

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