A Blog of Flashbacks What Should I Do?
October 2025
I am so far behind, how about if I stop reading the news for a month. My husband and a friend will keep me posted when there’s another disaster. What am I behind on? Writing. What do I do instead of what I should? I read the news too much. I’m not a politician. There is nothing I, Abigail, can do to help the two-state solution, stop the war in Ukraine, starvation in Sudan, wildfires, floods, and drought across the planet. Yes, I can contribute money to help people and I do, but I am not a change agent in these disastrous situations. What should I do? Write!
How do I help? I contribute to responsible organizations—White Stork, NPR, Doctors without Borders, and others I send messages to friends in Ukraine. When in a taxi or Uber with a driver from Somalia or Sudan, I ask if he is one of the Lost Boys. Yes, each one has said. I tip them half or even equal to the fare.
I chose not to go into politics, so what can I do now? I can increase my writing of poetry, behavior analysis articles, and literary prose, some of which is commentary on current events irrelevant to global health. Yet I live in the north and am aware daily of the climate.
I know I live in a changing climate. I live in the Circumpolar North. I see the changes. Now no leaves turn yellow or red the beginning of August. The fireweed was still pink this year. I smell the climate. There is no change to the odor of the air, no smell of autumn’s debris in August or even September this year. I feel the lack of change. I don’t need an extra sweater in my office or on walks. We have no rush in late August to harvest the garden before the first frost. This fall there was no rush even in September. Finally, October 10 and 11 gave us frost.
Meanwhile, Kotzebue, latitude is 66.9., floods in October. It should be snowing there. It’s 25 miles north of the Arctic Circle. If you live below the 49th parallel, the Canadian-US border, and you’re not worried about our changing climate, start now. You may not see the changes as specifically as those of us at the 58th parallel and above. Again, if you’re not worried, start to worry now.
Oceans are warming and their coral reefs are dying. The far northern and southern latitudes are melting.
Try reading an article.
A person to read is Kim Heacox. Look for him and his op-ed articles on the internet in The Guardian. Kim has written opinions for The Guardian US since 2017, mostly on the climate crisis, global biodiversity loss and threats to US public lands.
Or choose your own area by looking on the internet for climate change. Here’s one headline—Climate scientists report earth has hit first tipping point. If that doesn’t alarm you, wake up. Please wake up. Also, look for the sites that end in .gov or .edu rather than .com, .net, .org. The latter three are from organizations that are commercial even if not-for-profit.
I can speak for Alaska. Polar bears are going into towns because the ice floes are unstable and too far apart for them to find their food. Alaska’s northwest is flooding, parts falling into the ocean. Houses in the Interior are collapsing as the permafrost beneath them melts.
If I speak for coral reefs, my information comes from the internet for I have never lived in a warm zone. Coral reefs house 25% of the ocean’s marine life. They are one factor that protects the nearby lands from ocean’s storms and winds. A coral reef can die quickly.
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Left to right: Healthy → dying → dead in a span of nine months. Information from a Penn State University student, the article doesn’t give the student’s name. |
I am not an ocean scientist. I just like living near it, be it in New England, Nova Scotia, Scotland, or Alaska. I come from a line of sea captains. Those may be my two reasons for being aware, but I am not knowledgeable about the science of the ocean. If only I had one-tenth of the knowledge of my ancestor, Capt. Tom, I’d be grateful. I only know what I see.
I no longer live on the Atlantic coast. I am an Alaska resident who lives a mile from Glacier Bay National Park. I’ve lived here only 28 years, but I can see dramatic changes in these years. The changes in glacial loss over the past 100 years are astounding.
I give one example of glacial change I witnessed. Around 2004, I took what we call a flight-see into Glacier Bay. At 8,000 feet, the temperature was 40 degrees. We were in a small plane. I didn’t ask the pilot; he just volunteered the information; it should not be that warm.
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Peak of Mt. Crillon, Fairweather Range, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. Late June, early July. 2004. Note the two crevasse lines. Peak height—12, 726 feet/3,879 meters. A week later, these two crevasse lines collapsed. Alaska Airlines pilots flying over saw such clouds from the collapse they initially reported it as a volcano. Photograph by Abigail B. Calkin, 2004. |
Again, what should I do? Write! Take care of myself and write.
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