TOMORROW IS MY DAUGHTER’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY, AND AS I WRITE THIS, THE temperature is projected to be 107 degrees here in Portland, Oregon. Our kids wanted to cool off in the river, but the extreme heat has caused toxic algal blooms. The scale of our climate emergency often keeps me awake at 4:00 a.m., when I struggle to steer my imagination clear of powerful headwinds pushing it toward the worst-case scenarios. We have been living in emergency lighting for so long that I think even our inner eyes have adjusted, and it can seem “only reasonable” to expect (and accept) that the climate scientists’ most dire predictions will soon become fact.
Perhaps you find yourself in
