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| The Mobile Headquarters, at camp in Story City, Iowa |
On Wednesday, several fortuitous events
graced us. First, a sophomore at the local high school in Ames, a
capable community-organizer and a passionate advocate for our
environment by the name of Angela, discovered us with our carts on
the edge of Bandshell Park, preparing to march north across the city.
Angela and her mother Cheryl spoke with us at some length – and
Angela decided to take us up on our invitation to walk with us for
the afternoon. Angela started an environmental group when she was in
middle school, and recently joined forces with a similar student
group at Iowa State University in Ames. By the time she parted
company with us, Angela had experienced what it is like to hand-pull
a painted cart in rush-hour traffic, deal with a toddler who has a
flair for melodrama, and make public announcements with a bullhorn
while walking through a crowded shopping district.
Apparently, she was inspired, because
she intends to coordinate our offering an informal climate seminar this
weekend, and a larger presentation when we return this fall.
The second dose of serendipity came
from the family who owns a pretty trailer park, ten miles north of
Ames. When they learned that we were in the area, they requested
that we come stay, and offered us a small work-exchange arrangement
for our camping costs.
However, at the same time, on Wednesday
evening, as we were beginning to search for a secluded spot to leave
our carts at the end of the day's walk, another Good Samaritan by the
name of Keith invited us to his home, a fantasy of flowers, not far
from the highway. Keith offered us hospitality that was a kind of
blessed generosity, from a place to sleep in his house, to food and
homemade drink, to car shuttle rides to fetch our trailer.
Keith helped us arrange a photo
opportunity with a reporter from the Ames Tribune, who came to snap
our picture at the park the following morning, before we set out.
Thus, we were at last featured again in a daily newspaper on Friday,
and the message of the caption was substantially our own.
Thursday was a day of dramatic fortune,
too. While Gavain drove ahead to set up camp at the trailer park
mentioned above, Dana and her children Egon, 10, Poppy, 7, and
Tillwyn, 2, set out north on the highway, with a 20 mph following
wind that made the principle work of it one of preventing the carts
from sailing forth faster than the person pulling it could pace. By
the time they had walked five miles, though, one of the large, Amish
carriage wheels on the Pacing Wagon was barely turning, making a loud
grinding sound with every revolution. It finally locked up 100 yards
from an intersection – the only intersection for miles – where
there happened to be a shop that specializes in trailer repair.
It was a funny sight to have our Pacing
Wagon raised up on a floor jack, while the mechanic removed the
wheels and chipped off the broken bearing set inside. (We had failed
to grease the bearings well enough from the start, it turns out). He
was able to order replacement bearings, and have our carts ready by
the next morning.
On Friday, we discovered that the
starter in our truck was kaput...even though it had been rebuilt this
past winter. Sychronistically, we had it towed to the same remote
intersection where our repaired carts were waiting for us: only this
time, the opposite corner, an engine repair shop. Luckily we are at
this campground with the gracious hosts who invited us personally,
and we can afford to wait until Monday to receive our (hopefully,
working) truck, because we can exchange our labor for our rent fee.
All the while, we are aware that there
are others in Colorado who may well lose their homes tomorrow due to
monster forest fires that are shaped by climate change from start to
finish – from the over-wintering pine beetles that are ravaging the
trees and turning them into acres and acres of tinder, to the hot,
dry winds that swell the inferno. We don't bring this up for
sensationalism. We must fully awaken to our plight: we are the
slower contenders in a race with nature. Climate change is dashing
ahead this summer with full effect.
This month, for instance, NASA snapped
a satellite photo of the entire state of Alaska, almost without a
shred of cloud cover. This freak occurrence is related to anomolous
high temperatures which climbed into the upper 90s, a troubling
situation for arctic land that historically averages in the 60s and
70s in June. Meteorologists report that an atmospheric “blocking
pattern” has kept a high pressure dome over Alaska, and sent the
mercury rising. These blocking patterns are tied the recent abrupt
melting of the arctic sea-ice.
President Obama is expected to deliver
a suite of carbon pollution initiatives on Tuesday. At least one is
meant to deal with existing fossil-fuel power plants. For all the
power of his office, though, considering the rate that climate change
advances, will his administration be any more effective addressing
climate change-mitigation than this one family right now in the
middle of Iowa? If you are chuckling wryly at that, well, we are
too.
(Maybe he doesn't have to deal with a
1980s Chevy on the fritz)
