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Hurricane season has hit America with its heavy, windy, wet hand.

And as people scramble to batten down the collective hatches, clean, and rebuild, we are all looking for the guy who did this. 

In the wake of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, online influencers are spreading conspiracy theories. Anna Merlan reports in Mother Jones that the many conspiracies about the disasters include that “FEMA is out of money, or that it will confiscate supplies donated by volunteers…. In one instance, a Tennessee woman posted on Facebook that FEMA was ‘confiscating’ supplies donated to Helene survivors. Large conspiracy websites like Natural News seized on and promoted this claim, even after she made her post private and shared a second post saying the agency did not ‘fully take’ the items.” 

Marjorie Taylor Greene — that sentient copy of the Weekly World News, that walking r/conspiracy thread, that Russia Today funded conspiracy account that got elected to Congress — tweeted that “they” control the weather. Who is “they,” hun?

Because it’s not the aliens sitting on Mars with a giant blow dryer pointed at the earth. It’s not Jesus Christ himself laying a warm wet towel over the Earth like we just had a nice shave and a haircut. Please do not say something antisemitic, Marjorie, because, respectfully, my Jewish friends can barely conspire to text me back. (Editor’s note: I am from a Jewish family and it takes my sisters like three days to respond on the group text. I’ll allow this.)

If Jews controlled the weather, I don’t think they’d choose to be schvitzing in October. Please be serious.

The only “they” I might actually believe in Disney. Because once in 2015, I went on a Disney cruise and the ship’s captain joked that Disney was working on controlling the weather and the laughter in the room was so nervous. I had some questions.

Conspiracies pop up in times when people feel helpless and at risk. Everyone wants someone to blame for destruction and devastation. Was it Ron DeSantis? He certainly didn’t help; he’s more concerned with the “woke mind virus” than the actual looming threat of his entire state washing out to sea. 

Was it Joe Biden? Actually, Joe Biden has done more than any previous president on climate change.

WHO? WHO COULD HAVE WARMED UP THE EARTH IN THE MICROWAVE OF LATE STAGE CAPITALISM AND CREATED THESE CLIMATE DISASTERS?

Oh shit. It’s us.

This week, NPR reported:

Warmer ocean temperatures can lead to heavier rainfall and more severe flooding. Storms like Hurricane Helene suck up huge amounts of moisture as they move towards land, which then falls as rain, and can cause flooding far from the coast.

Climate change is also driving sea levels higher, which means more dangerous storm surges.

Scientists are also exploring whether climate change is causing storms to gain strength more quickly, as Hurricanes Beryl, Helene, and Milton have all done this year. When storms intensify rapidly, it can be difficult to prepare and evacuate communities in time.

This hurricane is not just the consequences of the actions of red state governors and voters. Warming up the earth on the stove of our collective overconsumption took everyone. It took climate change deniers, oil companies, the cars we drive, and the energy we use.

We didn’t have to be here. This isn’t some inevitable climate steam-roller that had to come to level us and everything we hold dear. The earth’s destruction and ours with it is not some game of chicken.

After all, the world came together to fix the hole in the ozone. We worked to reduce acid rain and lead poisoning. We saved the peregrine falcon, the sea otter, and the bison.

And these are important things to remember. Because so often I hear people wringing their hands and predicting the worst. But in the words of Rebecca Solnit, “I respect despair as an emotion, but not as an analysis. You can feel absolutely devastated about the situation and not assume this predicts outcome; you can have your feelings and can still chase down facts from reliable sources, and the facts tell us that the general public is not the problem; the fossil fuel industry and other vested interests are; that we have the solutions, that we know what to do, and that the obstacles are political; that when we fight we sometimes win; and that we are deciding the future now.”

And we can still change this. We can still laugh at dinguses and contemplate our own complicity. We can be devastated and still work for change. We can see hopelessness and still find hope. 

Dingus of the Week: Climate Change Deniers lyz · July 28, 2023 Read full story

Dingus of the Week: Marjorie Taylor Greene lyz · January 30, 2021 Read full story

And now for something good

Speaking of battling systemic problems and long odds, Lina Khan is kicking ass at the Federal Trade Commission. Khan’s work combating monopolies that gouge consumers and noncompetes that hamstring workers is a reminder that change is possible and we can fight for it.

The Minnesota Lynx beat the New York Liberty in Game 1 of the WBNA finals. And we love to see women in the Midwest win. And if you are sad that the WNBA season is almost over, I have learned that men also play basketball. I’m unclear as to how. But you can watch that, I guess. 

Han Kang was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature!

Talia Lavin’s book Wild Faith is out now! And Jessica Valenti’s book about abortion just hit the NYT bestsellers list!

Tove Danovich wrote about the joy of watching Vaux’s swifts migrate through Portland, Oregon.

The Klamath dam removal project is complete. The largest dam removal project in American history, it is the result of decades of advocacy by members of the Karuk and Yurok tribes. And their work continues. Change is possible.

What I am enjoying

Last night, I received my first writing award in my career. Never in high school or college or anytime in the 20 years of writing professionally have I been given an award for my work. 

Once, when my daughter was 7, she was devastated that she didn’t win first place at her school’s art show. I told her that I was still a writer even though I had never won an award. She stopped crying, looked at me disdainfully and said, “Well, you should have just quit then.”

Currently, she is also the most award-winning writer in the house, with not one, but two wins from the VFW essay contest.

But I have not quit. I probably wouldn’t quit even if Gov. Kim Reynolds herself came to my house and cut my hands off. I write because I can. Because I know it’s the one thing I can do in this hell world that will sometimes bring joy, clarity, entertainment, or information. Maybe it’s just to one person, maybe a few more.

It also means a lot to me that this award is the Iowa Author Award, given out by the Des Moines Public Library. This state, my adopted home, has beaten me up with floods, winds, and pandemics. But it’s only made me love it here more. Made me understand what it means to be in a place, and from a place, and to fight for a place.

This week, I spent the week recovering from running my first marathon. And while I expected my body to be sore, I didn’t expect how raw my emotions would be. I broke down on Wednesday in Home Goods, thinking about how I never thought I could run a marathon, but I did, not because I was so strong and good and running. (I am the opposite!) But because I have friends who told me I could, who ran with me, who gave me a plan. All I had to do to get it done was show up.

So, Iowa, you stupid, beautiful jerk, I am enjoying you this week.