Hello Portland
Our New Home
Braving fire and disease
It took us three days to work our way up the western coast, but we made it. We did everything we could along the way to avoid the thousands of wildfires burning throughout Washington, Oregon, and California. It seems the entire western United States are on fire. But try as we might we could not avoid the unhealthy smoke and poisonous air. We even directly encountered several of the fire’s refugee families. Their homes, animals, and possessions all consumed by the ravenous beast-fire. They sat in front of hotel rooms breathing in the toxic air trying to be cheery, but plainly lost and devastated. What a horror we are causing by burning fossil fuels with abandon.
We initially planned to take the shortest route from Oakland to Portland via highway 5. Then the fires that had already been burning in California for three weeks suddenly spread to Oregon and Washington. So many fires and so much smoke generated that from space a giant plume of unhealthy brown smoke was clearly visible. We altered our route and planned to head eastward via Bend Oregon, but then the fire exploded, and this path became untenable. We adjusted again and found a way north via highway 101 and 1. We were still surrounded by fires but at least there was some relief from the toxic smoke.
All the while, we did everything we knew to avoid exposure to the deadly coronavirus.
What a world we have created. Our unfettered greed and self-interest have produced a hell on Earth for so many people. We must control and limit the total number of humans alive on the planet at one time. With seven and a half billion of us and no end in sight to our population growth the pressure on our air, water, and food will only increase. This pressure will also increase how much more carbon we dump into the atmosphere, and plastic we chuck into the oceans, and the wild habitats we destroy to feed our insatiable, ever growing herds of humans.
Julia and I made it to our new home in Portland. We hope we can live out our lives here. However, given the change in climate humanity has created I am not certain of this, are you?