Notes From The Climate Front

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, 

but by those who watch them without doing anything.”– Albert Einstein

Notes From The Climate Front

Sometime in September; Somewhere on the Left Coast; Somewhere in the Smoke Clouds

As the fires from climate catastrophe swirl around us, I become particularly aware of the flood of refugees. More numerous than in recent years, they are apparently flying in from elsewhere. 

Luckily, our house did not burn down last week in the firestorm, so at the moment we are in a little island of safety, despite the worst smoke I have ever seen.

People around us report that cougars, bears, foxes, and coyotes have been displaced and are helping themselves to any local cats and dogs they can catch for lunch.

But our refugees are of the feathered kind. This year they seem more present and close to our watered island and pond in the forest clearing. We have never used any poisons here, and have long ago stopped trying to grow anything but what the forest itself plants here, so it is bit of a refuge. 

So all day we watch through the filtered smoke as more than a few local birds, plus a lot of new ones, hang around, stop in, and move on. I have seen quite a few new visitors and species that I have never noted in this location before.  Whole flocks of species I have never seen. 

No one is outside or driving around in this pandemic combined with toxic smoke event. It is so quiet! Maybe the birds are just glad the humans are all indoors as they cower in houses to escape the smoke. 

Fall migrations are underway now, and surely this is disrupted. The entire west coast of north America is smoky from the fires that are sprinkled over the landscape. Each successive year seems to be record breaking over the previous one.

Each successive year, until now, there are fewer, not more birds, overall. But this year feels poignant and pathetic. The birds are more numerous, apparently, only because they are refugees from habitat they are losing elsewhere, so even more of net loss, overall.

Still, when I look out my window, I wish that I too, could fly away to a better place. As soon as I figure out where that is. Some other planet?