Just an excerpt. This is in the voice of the old woman.
I graduated from Indiana
University in 2012. That was fifty years ago. At that time, IU and other universities in the
Midwest were emerging as leaders in renewable energy. While some people at the
time denied the immediacy of the threat of global climate change, I was
inspired to make a difference. I earned a B.S. in Biology with a focus on
environmental studies, and I moved to New York City to work for Wilson Green Power, helping other universities
in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic make the change over to renewable sources of
energy. During my 7 years with Wilson, we raised solar panels, improved
insulation, and installed geothermal heat pumps in 72 universities from
Maryland to Vermont.
But about 40 years
ago, the most extreme heat wave to date devastated the Central and Southern
United States. Over 50,000 people across the nation died of heat-related deaths—mostly
the very young, the very old, or the very sick. Stroke. Dehydration. Crops
failed and conflicts arose over precious water sources. Then, two years later,
coastal cities experienced extensive flooding during one of the wettest spring
seasons in ten years.
It was now about 8:45
am. Behind the wheel of my BioFuel-powered car I thought about far we had come
since I started working with Wilson after college. My husband James was working
in the yard as I pulled into the driveway. We retired to Vermont last year. “Tell
me you’re healthy,” he said with a smile, the well-defined creases around his
eyes and mouth revealing a lifetime of smiling.
Some things change,
and some things don’t.
No comments:
Post a Comment