“Flow” is Really a Cli-Fi Movie: And Your Cat and Dog Will Like it Too!

Watching the movie with my friends and Sammy—who thankfully has never been caught in a flood or even seen a river—I couldn’t help but see the story as a metaphor for the water element out of balance. Disruption of the water cycle is of course a key component of the human-caused climate breakdown that we are already living through...

Of Chosen Family and “Childless Cat Ladies”

Maybe we should all claim the honorific “childless cat lady”—whatever your gender, sexual orientation, or age, whether you have cats, dogs, other companion animals, or just love wildlife and the Earth, and whether or not you have raised children and/or grandchildren.

Solarpunk and Cli-fi, Oh My! The Case for Optimism

Cli-fi, fiction about the climate crisis, is still hardly a household word—or even a known genre among booksellers—years after Dan Bloom coined the term in 2007. I still get blank stares most of the time when I introduce Weather Menders to a bookseller, or talk about the genre with people who are not deeply involved … Continue reading Solarpunk and Cli-fi, Oh My! The Case for Optimism

Santa Fe’s Very Woke Teens and Children: Youth Climate Strike

Yesterday I joined several hundred very woke teens and children in the first Santa Fe Youth Climate Strike. Supported by parents, adults, and elders, these young leaders amplified the passionate call for immediate climate action first voiced by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish high school student and now activist and Nobel Prize nominee. I can … Continue reading Santa Fe’s Very Woke Teens and Children: Youth Climate Strike

Message from the North

For a few days in early November, and again in early December, Santa Fe was colder than Anchorage, Alaska. As humans and the remaining straggling birds shivered, as the last of the marigolds in my garden froze solid, friends in Alaska resignedly told me that the snow that had cheered (most of) them up had melted.