Skip to main content


A comic I drew five years ago while hunkered indoors next to an air purifier in Seattle as wildfires raged in the Northwest. Now the east coast has the ticks AND the smoke.

#climate #climatecrisis #climatechange #wildfires

in reply to Jen Sorensen

In my head, I hear the title sung by Kay Starr.
This entry was edited (11 months ago)
in reply to Jen Sorensen

I wrote at the time, "As if things didn’t already feel apocalyptic enough, there’s something about these wildfire episodes, with their sickly grayish-orange skies and sense of entrapment, that truly give one the sense that the end of the Anthropocene is nigh."
in reply to Jen Sorensen

It's strange to see posts from friends in the Northeast experiencing this particular form of climate grief for the first time. I can only hope the visceral experience of unbreathable air moves a few more people in positions of power to take the problem seriously.
in reply to Jen Sorensen

Let's hope, though this apparent "need" for first hand experience leads me to despair that rapid ongoing changes in the #Arctic will ever be taken seriously by mid-latitude powers, except in the sense of warmer Arctic → increased resource extraction opportunities.
in reply to Jen Sorensen

Oh, I'm sure it'll... spur these folks to check prevailing wind patterns and relocate their summer homes outside the smoke zones. Possibly increase the HVAC capacity in them too.
in reply to Jen Sorensen

they're still complaining about (lack of) street parking on NextDoor.
in reply to Jen Sorensen

From experience here in Dresden, Germany: Those in power claimed that the national park should have cut down and removed those trees before they could become a wildfire risk. Don't expect any decency from conservatives.
in reply to Jen Sorensen

If by "take the problem seriously" you mean buying doomsday bunkers in Wyoming, then yes. They will.
in reply to Jen Sorensen

I've been saying for years that the Philly area summers are hotter and more humid than when I was a kid. The local NPR, in a report on the smoke, mentioned that Philly has TWELVE more days above 90 on average per suer than only 10 years ago.

90 was phenomenally hot when I was a kid. Now it's commonplace. But sure yeah there's no climate change.

All 13 Canadian provinces and territories have had wildfires this year, a total of over 2,200. Since March.

in reply to DressToKILT

@DressToKILT I grew up in southeastern PA, and I agree -- 90 was unusual. Summer highs were always in the 80s.
in reply to Jen Sorensen

I was watching a gardening Youtube video from a channel I recently started watching. The gal is somewhere in PA near NJ and in the last video she was talking about a red flag warning they had and then she was walking the dog and the neighborhood smelled like everyone was having a campfire and I was like “omg she’s never smelled wildfire before” and I guess I hadn’t even considered that some people haven’t, just wild
in reply to Jen Sorensen

The KEXP shirt is a perfect touch.

But you know folks in the Beltway. They won't take the wildfire smoke any more seriously than they take gun violence.

in reply to Jen Sorensen

Divine Comedy: "Here Comes The Flood" (1998)
Why watch the sports channel when you can watch C.N.N.?
Ladies and Gentlemen, the greatest race in history, the race to end all races,
In fact the race to end history. In lane one - the San Andreas Fault, in lane two
Global Recession, in three - El Nino, in four
Chemical War, lane five - Inter-Racial Conflict, lane six
Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome. On your marks. Get Set. Wait for it.......... Go!

https://youtu.be/upcUk1_Znc8

in reply to Jen Sorensen

(Just between you and me, I think FL has become an unlivable hellscape over the past 5 years, and it ain't the hurricanes.)
in reply to Jen Sorensen

plus, the NW has ticks and the Ocala forest in FL has a wildfire, so, everything for everyone!
in reply to Jen Sorensen

It bothers me to no end that the southwest panel is not flipped with the southeast.
in reply to CharlesScallop

@CharlesScallop I remember thinking about that at the time and deciding I wanted to end on the person collapsing from heat exhaustion. In hindsight, I'd probably flip them.
in reply to Jen Sorensen

The Northeast gets hurricanes and heat waves too! And the winner of the dystopia sweepstakes is ... Florida, still Florida
in reply to Jen Sorensen

I purchased my super powered HEPA filter and am gearing up for "fire season" a la So Cal.

Lo, thar be cookies on this site to keep track of your login. By clicking 'okay', you are CONSENTING to this.