Title
Andrea’s Climate Story
Name
Andrea M.
Place
Seattle, WA 98117
How are you sensing climate change?
Growing up in Seattle, I remember playing outside in all seasons. Seattle’s temperate, rainy climate was not something I thought about much as a child–I mostly thought about the weather–if it was raining, I would draw or read, but if it was not, I was always outside, even in the winter when it got dark very early in the afternoon. Climate was something stable, and even as I started learning about climate change in middle school, I didn’t think of it as something that impacted the place I lived–earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes were the natural disasters that I feared and which kept me up at night. However, Seattle today feels very different from when I was a child–I often wonder if the abnormal weather (record precipitation, snowstorms, and hot temperatures in the summer) are caused by climate change. In the summer, wildfires bring smoke into Seattle skies, and we are starting to become used to the idea that this is something we will have to live with in the future.
How do these changes make you feel?
They make me worry–especially for my elderly relatives, who do not have air conditioning, for instance, or who suffer more from the smoke from wildfires. I feel lucky to call such a beautiful place home, but I feel sad that other parts of the country are being harder hit, and may suffer more directly or be forced to relocate due to climate change.
Collection
Citation
Seattle, WA 98117
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