My Canoe Just Hangs from the Rafters in the Garage

For me, summers in La Crosse should mean fishing from my canoe once a week and biking every other day. So far this year, I have gone fishing twice, and I’ve been on my bike a half dozen times. The infrequency of these favorite outdoor pursuits has nothing to do with my septuagenarian body and everything to do with the outdoor conditions. The temperatures have been uncomfortably hot, the air quality has been at hazardous levels, and the rivers have been running at near flood stage. Sometimes the thermometer readings have been so high and the air quality so bad that I don’t even walk my dog.

All of this points to climate change. The temperatures have been gradually rising for years, the air quality is due to fires in western Canada, and the high water is the result of frequent hard rains. The rain has actually been welcome, as precipitation helps the native plant life stand up to the excessive heat. 

I once thought that my northern location and the Upper Midwest’s abundance of freshwater would protect me from the harshest effects of climate change. I may be wrong on this. The number of tornados is up, as are hailstorms, and I recently added the word “derecho” to my vocabulary. Derechos are straight-line winds as strong as those from a hurricane. I don’t know what causes a derecho, but this summer is the first time I’ve ever heard the word used to describe a weather occurrence. Everyone over the age of twenty has personally witnessed climatic change just within their lifetimes, so I am not sure how some people are able to deny its existence. There are those who seem ready to embrace unfounded conspiracy theories, but not believe a phenomenon that stares them in the face.

During the spring of Clare’s senior year at Grinnell, she and I talked about potential jobs for her after college. My daughter knew that she wanted a career related to sustainability, but was not sure what that meant. When I mentioned my own career in environmental education, her response was, “No offense, Dad, but I don’t want to do environmental education. It may have been an option for you fifty years ago, but now there’s not enough time.”

This is the situation my generation has left for our kids.