The Wile E. Coyote Crisis

All the fancy, interactive models in the world can’t save us

The report is in: we’re not even close. Throw private enterprise out the window, and state-owned operations will push us beyond the Paris agreement on their own. There’s countless ways to start chalking up blame, but the standout sin in my opinion is a certain kind of blissful delusion. We’re not getting closer to the edge—we’re already past it. But we keep moving the goalposts and redrawing the line, claiming there’s still a bit more room, a bit more time. We’re Wile E. Coyote, capable of standing on air and defying the laws of nature simply because we haven’t noticed that we’re already falling.

All the fancy, interactive models in the world can’t save us, but it’s a neat way to look at the future just the same.  I’m currently living in Phoenix; it says here it’ll be borderline uninhabitable, hotter than 95 degrees Fahrenheit for the majority of the year. Then there’s the whole wet bulb temperature threshold, where sweat can’t cool you off and you slowly cook over time when outdoors. Different locations will be affected in varying ways, but most of the places I’ve ever thought of living in the US are all some version of fucked. I have a friend that’s moving to Canada in anticipation of all this. Sometimes I think she’s the most sane, clear-eyed person I know. 

These models and articles also make me think about what it would be like for the climate to produce American refugees. I’m ashamed that my first thought is how fundamentally incongruent those words sound together—refugees and immigrants come from other places to America, not the other way around, right? And while that shame humbles me, I’m glad the realization of my ignorant bias has also broken my own blissful delusion. If you likewise struggle with the concept of an American refugee, I’d suggest getting used to it. All signs seem to point to the fact that soon, the whole world will. 

The great migration is already happening. We’re in hang time, over the edge of the cliff, just now looking down at how far we have to fall. Just enough time for one last look at the camera before we plunge.