Core Sample
In 1985, NASA discovered its own satellites had been recording the collapse of the ozone layer for years. The processing software had flagged the measurements as instrument error. The numbers fell outside the range the system recognized as physically possible. The instruments were correct.
CO₂ at 339 parts per million. Arctic ice: 6.85 million square kilometers. The seasonal oscillations still regular, each spring drawdown fitting inside the one before. The instruments kept recording.
Core Sample
In 1985, NASA discovered its own satellites had been recording the collapse of the ozone layer for years. The processing software had flagged the measurements as instrument error. The numbers fell outside the range the system recognized as physically possible. The instruments were correct.
CO₂ at 339 parts per million. Arctic ice: 6.85 million square kilometers. The seasonal oscillations still regular, each spring drawdown fitting inside the one before. The instruments kept recording.
Showing People Where Things Used to Be
A cherry grower in Washington's Yakima Valley watched his crop cook on the branch. In Phoenix, an ER nurse started treating second-degree burns from sidewalks. A lobsterman in Maine is pulling up fish that belong off the Carolina coast. A park ranger in Montana says her job description quietly changed. None of these people know each other.
What follows is fifteen of them talking. Farmers, lineworkers, bus drivers, fishing guides, ranchers, coaches, firefighters. No analysis, no expert interpretation. Working people in different states, different industries, reaching for language to describe what their hands and their routines already know.
Showing People Where Things Used to Be
A cherry grower in Washington's Yakima Valley watched his crop cook on the branch. In Phoenix, an ER nurse started treating second-degree burns from sidewalks. A lobsterman in Maine is pulling up fish that belong off the Carolina coast. A park ranger in Montana says her job description quietly changed. None of these people know each other.
What follows is fifteen of them talking. Farmers, lineworkers, bus drivers, fishing guides, ranchers, coaches, firefighters. No analysis, no expert interpretation. Working people in different states, different industries, reaching for language to describe what their hands and their routines already know.
The Hinge
CO2 crossed 400 parts per million for the first time in human history. Edward Snowden fled the country. Breaking Bad ended. The IPCC published its largest-ever climate assessment, and the word on everyone's lips was "pause." Warming appeared to have stalled. Reuters ran headlines about scientists struggling to explain the slowdown.
The ocean was swallowing heat the surface wasn't showing. The planet was warming at 0.2°C per decade. On schedule. On time.
Nobody called it the last year on schedule because nobody knew there was a schedule to lose.
Past Articles
In 1971, a scientist looked at tornado wreckage and guessed backward at the wind. His scale held for thirty-six years. I...
Along the Purus River in Brazil's Amazonas state, the air held moisture you could feel against the roof of your mouth. S...
On March 17, the National Weather Service issued simultaneous warnings for heat stroke and hypothermia along the same st...
Four field assessments of Map Unit FoB, Forgan fine sandy loam, NW¼ Section 14, Beaver County, Oklahoma. The first was c...