I'm dreaming of a white Christmas (and I live in Northern Minnesota so WTF)
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas (and I live in Northern Minnesota so WTF)
On the climate crisis, the US military, and genocide
When I was growing up in south east Nebraska, we would have snow storms that would close schools for days on end. We lived out in the country and the snow would drift so high, it would bury my mom’s red Pontiac Grand Am. I loved it and I would spend hours outside making snow forts until my hands and feet went numb.
When I was in high school, I would pack a bag and stay with my grandparents if I knew a storm was coming. If I was going to be snowed in, I wanted to be snowed in at a place with good internet, cable TV, and access to a copious amount of snacks. I would sit on their couch with a book in my hand while my grandparents would tell me stories from their childhood, about storms that left behind feet of snow. I would half-listen, as teenagers do, nodding along and thinking that they were surely exaggerating.
But then I spent the next 8 years after high school witnessing the slow tapering of snowfall with my own eyes. Gone were the large storms of my youth, replaced by periods of flurries that would land and then quickly melt within a few days. Because there is limited access to outdoor recreation, the lack of snow didn’t bother me much at the time other than when it came to be the holiday season when I would pine for a layer of snow to set the vibe for the week long stretch between Christmas Eve and New Years.
I spent my last winter season in Nebraska in 2019/2020. When we decided to move to Northern Minnesota, our family thought we were a little crazy for moving to a freezing tundra we’d never visited before. But Nebraska, despite it’s lack of snow, got just as cold at times so I felt we had nothing to fear. In fact, I was excited about the idea of inches upon inches of snow to gaze at and that I would always have a white Christmas.
As I write this on December 23rd, there is no snow on the ground. The high temperatures for the next three days are in the mid-40s. It’s supposed to rain on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. As a former patient once said, “What a waste of snow.”
It makes me feel uneasy seeing dead leaves and green grass this late in the year. My body knows this is not good, that it implies our planet is in peril. I asked our neighbors, lifelong Duluthians, if there has ever been a winter like this before. They said they can’t remember anything like this, a time where there wasn’t snow on the ground at the end of December.
It seems climate change has reached my doorstep, a crisis that has seemed far-off all this time living in Northern Minnesota. What a privilege to be largely unaffected until now. It may seem that I am complaining about losing the ~aesthetics~ of a snowy landscape, but I promise it is deeper than that.
I am sad for the wildlife who have a harder time catching prey and hiding from predators without the coverage of snow. I think about the delicate ecosystems that thrive under layers of ice. I fear for the trees, many already damaged by diseases and pests, that need the snow to help insulate their roots during the cold season. I think about local economies that lean on winter recreation—ice fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, and more—and how the loss of revenue will have lasting effects.
Mainly, I think about how we got here. Climate change and the full-blown crisis we are living in is a direct cause of fossil fuel consumption, deforestation, and agriculture. We’ve known this has been an issue for over a century and yet the leaders of the world continue to delay taking any meaningful action.
The president of the United States recognizes that climate change is an existential threat to humanity and yet encourages more money be funneled into an already exorbitant military budget, a military that is one of the largest climate polluters in the world producing more greenhouse emissions than Sweden, Denmark, and Portugal. In recent years the budget has grown to over 700 BILLION dollars while the emissions have grown to “about 51 million metric tons, CO2 equivalent, annually in the last two years. That does not include the emissions caused by the destruction of property—the burning of infrastructure, including cities—that the US may engage in when they make war (Zarook & Crawford, 2022).”
Speaking of burning infrastructure and property destruction, let’s talk about the military endeavors supported by the US government. Israeli attacks have damaged or destroyed at least 40,000 buildings or about 18% of all structures in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. The United States has given at least 3 BILLION dollars annually to Israel for decades as well as access to a cache of weapons they can purchase at a low cost. Israel would not be able to carryout the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people without the support of the United States who has supplied at least 92% of the weapons being used. These weapons include explosives, of which Israel as dropped more than 25,000 tonnes, the equivalent of two nuclear bombs. Entire neighborhoods destroyed and thousands of innocent people murdered, it is ethnic cleansing in every sense of the term.
Maybe it’s not the sight of dead leaves and green grass making me feel uneasy this holiday season. Maybe it’s the thought of thousands of children in Palestine, the biblical birthplace of Jesus, dead and buried in rubble. Maybe it’s not the lack of snow that has me feeling off. Maybe it’s the thought of all the greenhouse gases being emitted by Israel’s carpet bombing of Palestine, which will result in the intensification of climate change and even more humanitarian crises in the near future. Maybe it’s because the United States is funding a genocide.
(This newsletter centers Palestine, but I want to also raise awareness for ongoing genocides in Congo and Sudan. If you look back far enough, you will learn that the United States is complicit in aiding atrocities there while ignoring the basic needs of its own citizens. Call your state representative and speak up about the ethnic cleansing that is being live-streamed to us, boycott companies who continue to fund military attacks on innocent civilians, educate yourself, donate money, attend protests and organize within your community. Our struggles are connected. There is power when we band together to fight for what’s best for humanity.)
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