“It was a good combination of risk and conveying emotional truth. So I was able to really dig deep and say exactly how I felt in that moment,” he said. Ta.
His rant went viral. He says his employer, NASA, sent him a letter expressing concern about his two arrests.
(“That has to be very clear because I’m speaking on behalf of myself, not as a climate scientist at NASA, which is very important to keeping my job.”) he said in an interview.)
He fears a third arrest could cost him money.
“Will I continue doing science? Or will I continue to participate in dangerous activities and possibly lose my job?” Kalmus said.
Meanwhile, Kalmus is frustrated by the growing number of scientists who are willing to be arrested and not incite protests. And his view of our climate predicament grew increasingly bleak.
“The situation in 2023 feels worse than I thought it would be,” Kalmus said, citing record levels of sea ice in Antarctica as a sign that the Earth system may be changing faster than the scientific community. He pointed out the low temperatures and record heights of sea and land surfaces. I can understand it.
In recent years, climate change has begun to have a negative impact on Calmus’ personal life.
In the summer of 2020, he felt sick while hiking through a California heatwave, witnessed wildfires blazing and plumes of smoke miles from his home in California, and his voice became hoarse and his head hurt. It hurt. The scorching temperatures killed the dogwood tree in my front yard. His productivity decreased and he could no longer focus on science.
Kalmas dreamed of living in the Pacific Northwest, feeling he might be able to escape the worst of climate change. That same year, a three-day heat wave that would have been nearly impossible without the effects of climate change hit the region, killing hundreds of people, buckling roads and causing overheated baby birds to jump from their nests and die.
“That’s when I realized there was no safe place,” Kalmus said. His family moved to North Carolina for his wife Sharon’s job, and his experience planted a seed.
If we can’t stop climate change and we can’t avoid it, can we at least find better ways to survive it?
life in a mansion
Calmus knew what could go wrong.
“I immediately ruled out the idea of being a prepper stocking up on beans and ammunition,” he said.
But he found himself dreaming of a simpler life, where he could keep bees, grow vegetables, squeeze cider on Friday nights, and live closer to the land.
A visit to Possibility Alliance, a sprawling 11-acre farm filled with fruit trees, goats, chickens and gardens, allowed him to scratch an itch he had looked forward to for much of his adult life.
The Hughes family, who run the homestead, and their guests live almost entirely without electricity or modern technology.
The family of four does not fly or own a car due to concerns about the climate. Their main use of fossil fuels is to transport passenger trains to climate protests.
They sought to avoid capitalism and instead created a “gift economy” in this small corner of Maine, where neighbors shared resources and exchanged skills. They grow much of their own food, hold trainings for climate protesters, and plan to take in refugees as the climate disaster worsens.
At night it is illuminated by candlelight. Neighbors stop by without notice.
“We created something that existed 100 years ago,” Ethan Hughes said.
On a humid August morning, Calmus huddles around a faded picnic table in the heart of a farm in Belfast, Maine, sipping a rare varietal of coffee and thinking, like himself, that he’s wary of climate change. I noticed people there.
Source: www.nbcnews.com
