Pacing the Planet -- Week 11: Race for the Twin Cities

Pacing the Planet is back on the road as a leaner, swifter version of itself, with an evermore urgent message to share. We resumed from where we left off in southern Minnesota, and are racing for Duluth, hoping to beat the return of cold weather with its predominant north wind. In the last week, we have traveled more than 100 miles and arrived at the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

We will be spending the next week in this metropolitan area, the most populated on our entire route to northern Ontario. Minneapolis is the only locale on our route to host a local chapter of the international organization, “350.org,” which seeks to put pressure on government and institutions to divest financially from fossil fuel companies. “350.org” also advocates civil disobedience as an important tool and citizen responsibility to confront collusion between government and fossil fuel corporations.

In local climate change news, the Flanagan South Pipeline, under construction by Enbridge Inc., a Canadian company, is designed to carry bitumen oil from the Tar Sands of Alberta through our home area. The Flanagan Pipeline would carry Tar Sands oil from Illinois, through northeast Missouri, including Shelby County, to Oklahoma City. From there, the oil would continue down to Gulf Coast refineries. The project is being covertly fast-tracked.

Before we departed for this second phase of our walk, we attended a presentation by a collective of people who are organizing communities to resist construction of the Flanagan South Pipeline. These people have even blocked use of heavy machinery at the construction sites with their own bodies. They described how landowners along the proposed route of the Flanagan are being bullied into accepting fire sales of their properties, under threat of having their land seized through eminent domain action. Owners have been later surprised to learn that eminent domain claims can be contested. Furthermore, such pipelines are liable to leak toxic fuel onto the land and in the water, as residents in Mayflower, Arkansas found out this spring. We are available to provide information to Missouri residents who want to join the coalition to halt the pipeline.

As for Pacing the Planet: our speediness, this time around, is due to our traveling with one cart (with the all-terrain wheels), one child (our youngest daughter, aged 2), and with a new form of locomotion for our project: roller skates. In fact, of the last 100 miles we've traveled, most of them have been covered while skating with the cart in tow. Our presence on the road is now more visually striking, in addition to being faster. Our daily routine involves strapping on our knee and elbow pads, wrist guards, helmets, and adapting ourselves to the variable conditions of the shoulder of the road. With the hazards of pebbles, broken bits of car, frequent dead frogs, turtles, and racoons, and in one memorable spot, a box of nails, we find skating gives us something to focus on mentally during the hours of travel, and develops a different set of muscles than walking does. At its best, coasting down the highway on skates maybe comes close to the freedom of the personal jet pack that so many have sought.

We were interviewed by the Mankato Free Press, a newspaper serving that city and surrounding communities that has a circulation of somewhere near 40,000. We were featured on the front page of the local section with a large color photo, and the accompanying article is the best yet on Pacing the Planet.

At the same time, a lot of critically important news about the climate situation has emerged in the last month. The 2014 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is about to be released any day, and its findings are stark. The report is expected to declare with 95% certainty that human activity is driving the majority of global warming, and that the consequences within this century will be catastrophic if action is not taken immediately.

Researchers may now have the answer to one of this past decade's climate questions, namely, “Why has the increase in global average surface temperature in the last ten years not kept pace with the amount we have increased the Greenhouse Effect?” The reason appears to be that the deep ocean is temporarily storing most of that heat. Another study finds that an ongoing, natural cycle in the sea surface temperature has probably been masking most of the warming signal. Both of these studies anticipate that the absorbed heat can and will reappear, creating a spike in global surface temperatures in the near future. Beware of people spouting arguments which try to discredit the scientific consensus on global warming on the basis of temperatures this past decade.

As it is, a group of researchers looking at the extreme weather events of 2012 across the planet, through computer modeling, were able to conclusively tie half of the events to climate change from global warming, either in the causes of the event, or in the severity and reach of the consequences. The researchers note that the remaining events may well be influenced by global warming, but they were not able to draw that conclusion from the computer modeling used.

(You know, scientists are strictly precise with their wording. They say “maybe” when a bias-funded news caster would say “absolutely.” Scientists say “seems to indicate” when a commercial radio personality would say “clearly shows.” As we each do our best to discern fact from fiction in the world of abundant information, we must recognize this linguistic distinction, and resist the temptation to believe the argument which is most-vehemently expressed. The ones who are standing in the spotlight, gesticulating, calling their opponents names like idiot and moron, tend to be the ones who have the weakest argument on paper.)

Once we have a broad social understanding that extreme weather is being triggered and made worse by global warming, then there will also be a clear recognition of the necessity of moving quickly to limit the forcing of the climate through carbon emissions. We all have people and causes which we care about, above all else. It is time to stand up in defense of everything that we love.

This is the conversation we will be having with people in the Twin Cities, as we meet our largest audience yet.

Week 10 - Fear Not, Fail Not

The walk so far

In this tenth week of our project, we pressed north through the lower part of Minnesota, ultimately
walking to the tiny hamlet of Amboy, MN, where we have left our carts in storage. We are announcing that Pacing the Planet is officially on hold, and we have returned to our home in Missouri, to tend to our house, and to raise funding for the next part of our walk. We plan to recruit more people for our walk before we continue. So far, our company has traveled more than 300 miles on foot.

We wish to thank those who have helped us get this far: in particular, to our families, who have made ongoing financial contributions to make this walk possible; to Gavain's sister, Zoe, for providing our rolling headquarters; to Jason and Laura, for assisting us generously, serving as mail depot, and providing us with a staging ground for the northern half of our journey; to Stan and Echo, who have helped mind our house while we have been gone, and coordinated the publishing of these articles. Without the help of a few generous individuals, need would have sooner turned us from the path of walking.

Therein lies the problem. A movement of only individuals to address the rapid destabilization of the climate is almost certain to fail. Have we forgotten how to mobilize an entire society? By far, the most common response that we have received when we explain the purpose of our walk is indifference -- and the second-place holder is a good-natured, but empty, "Good luck," or "Have fun." The third-most frequent reply is some words about the changing weather, and idle curiosity about how we are funding this adventure of ours.

All three of those outcomes are failure: communication missed, passion drowned, climate changed. Few and far between are the people who really get the context for this moment of Earth's history, and understand that this is a "drop everything" crossroads for humanity. Unfortunately, because failing so often is an embarrassing drag, many people don't want to be associated with this work. So, from the beginning, Pacing the Planet has found a gallery of onlookers just waiting for us to fail. They tell us that the effort is too hard, or that the idea of walking was flawed in the first place, that we won't and can't make a meaningful difference this way. Others in the gallery are silent, waiting for us to come to our senses, come home and be normal, before they'll be friends or family with us again.

Not one of these people is doing anything remotely as effective as Pacing the Planet to tackle the runaway climate, and most of them know that. There is such a strong cultural taboo against seeming like an idealist and renouncing the status quo, that these people would rather do nothing than mortify themselves on the cross of public perception.

Yet, climate change is a cross we are already bearing, whether we realize it or not. And, cynicism is going to look pretty stupid when the innocents you know are suffering for it. That the climate is destabilizing is no longer in question. The big news this week is that researchers have found evidence that the enormous East Antarctic Ice Sheet -- which holds more water than Greenland or West Antarctica -- has melted rapidly in the past, in response to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels that we have already reached this year, and a global temperature that we will reach in the first half of this century. Scientists had thought the East Antarctic Ice Sheet was so stable, they had hardly bothered to study it. Now, they will be scrambling to give us a better forecast of what it is really going to do.

We will continue our walk in the coming weeks and months. Now is not the time to retreat into embarrassed anonymity. We will not be casualties of cowardice, nor of our own convenient rationalizations. The world is changing, the difference is meaningful, and we will meet you on the road.

Week 9 -- Delay and Dilly Dally

Pacing the Planet has arrived in Minnesota at last, sojourning at the little town of Blue Earth, an appropriately-named destination for our project. However, no sooner did we cross the border into this very tall state then our truck conked out while rounding a corner -- a failed injector pump. It has now been five days since that happened, and we still don't have the truck running (though we have every hope that tomorrow will be the day the Pacing the Planet Mobile rides again).

Being stuck in one place has allowed us some unusual opportunities. Blue Earth is home of the Green Giant frozen vegetable company, and every year at this time the town holds fireworks, a parade, and other events in a mini-festival called "Giant Days," all under the presumed benevolent gaze of a 53-foot-tall fiberglass statue of the Jolly Green Man himself. We paid the entry fee and joined the parade, sashaying our way down Main Street to the strains of "Pretty Woman" arising from the teen marching band behind us, while handing out copies of our newly revised Climate Crisis Information Sheet. It was a strange event, to be sure.

Our new information sheet is more specific in its prescription for responding to the climate situation. So much news is coming daily about the climate that there is a new hazard for our project: if we introduce ourselves as simply "climate activists," or "walking to raise awareness about the climate situation," many people will assume they know what our message is; and, yet, our message is still starkly different than what the politicians and journalists are saying, even now. In a nutshell, climate policy that isn't based on the scientific understanding of the climate system's limitations means nothing at all, will not save our planet for us.

As we walk, it is obvious the planet is changing. Not only does the land we pass through seem different, and person after person tells us that their homeland is not what it was when they were growing up (this from 70-year-olds and 20-year-olds alike), but the train of news stories about extreme weather disasters continues unabated. Colossal floods in India, 6,000 people missing, presumed dead. Nineteen firefighters dead in Arizona, charred in a huge fire that no one could contain. This is the crazy world we are birthing. Events that boggle the human imagination cartwheel through the 24-hour news cycle and disappear beneath the froth of our current distractions. This week, an "iceberg" larger than the city of Chicago splintered off Antarctica at a location where two large fissures appeared suddenly last year in a great ice shelf. It now drifts in the Southern Ocean, thousands of miles from civilization but still telling the time of the planet.

While we are essentially "stuck in place" for the time-being, we read about Australia and its current struggles with climate regulation. Australia is considering abandoning its carbon "tax," even though economists, scientists, and fossil fuel industry people are all in support of the program that created it, and the tax is having a measurable effect in reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. The coalition that put the policy in place is threatening to fracture under the stress of the opposition declaring that the "tax" represents a broken political promise and will bankrupt Australian families. (The political opposition there has been unable to find a single Australian economist to back that opinion up.) 

Australia is an important bellwether for the U.S. for a few reasons. Although Australia has a more-complex multi-party coalition government (or maybe because of it), they are the only major greenhouse polluting country to impose a carbon fee -- limited as it is. Created in 2010, the carbon fee program has already demonstrated itself to be effective in curtailing pollution, despite the fact that Australia is the heaviest emitter of greenhouse gases per household in the world. 

The other reason that Australia is an important example for the U.S. is that the unique weather dynamics of the southern continent mean that the land Down Under is already experiencing more severe disruption of its climate and environment from global warming than most of the rest of the world. It will continue to do so. The kinds of droughts that Australia faces now are a preview of what the U.S. will be experiencing these upcoming decades -- droughts that can bring civilizations to their knees. Watching Australia's political forces duke it out over a rather mild carbon fee while the outback burns on a regular basis and water becomes more scarce is an insight into how our own politically polarized government may handle the coming of extreme conditions here. The potential failure of Australia's carbon tax on account of its reputation as a political-economic poison pill shows that government may be too stupid to allow necessity to be the mother of invention.

250 Miles; Week 8

Tillwyn, joyful with wind and yogurt, at a rest stop north of Algona

We have now completed one-quarter of our northward journey, and with that comes a sobering thought: it would take most species 25 years to shift their habitat ranges by the same amount that we have walked in just 8 weeks. That is, if they can make the move at all.

One-quarter in, and we are doing well, having grown strong enough that the slight hills we are beginning to encounter again seem like no big deal. Walking on the left side of the road into oncoming traffic has started to feel normal, and accelerated our pace. Several times this week we set new records for ourselves, walking 11 miles one day and eighteen miles the next, thanks to a new option we generated for ourselves: a solo walker bearing a flag that we painted with the image of a burning planet.

After an initial mishap in Fort Dodge, IA (where our wagon was towed and impounded from a Fareway grocery store at the behest of an unsympathetic manager), we walked north along the exceedingly windy U.S. highway 169 for many miles and many towns, bringing us within a stone's throw of the Minnesota border by week's end (at least, if a very large giant were throwing it). In the town of Algona, IA, we encountered a well-attended annual motorbike rally, and spent a somewhat surreal day walking along a tiny country highway, parallel to 169, to the constant sound of motorcycle engine backfire, and pods of bikers, like schools of fish, streaking past us from behind and in front. By the end of the day the crowd had thinned so that small groups of bikes, or solitary riders, lazily droned past us like bumble bees or dragonflies.

We spend hours walking alongside fields whose soy plants are too small for the time of the year, corn that looks spring-tender while a summer sun beats down upon it now. The farmers who ride out on the gators to speak with us (and many do) worry that crops which were delayed in planting by weeks by torrential rainfall and flooding will now burn up because the shallow roots that have developed won't provide the plants enough water. We've had interesting conversations with those farmers about changing jet-stream and rainfall patterns that come with our changing climate, and we've handed out most remaining copies of the first printing of our Climate Crisis Information Sheet.

Everyone is talking about the climate crisis now. You cannot go to a news outlet without seeing a half-dozen stories about the situation, day after day. The floodgates have opened. The question, of course, is will the response be enough, be in time to make a difference? The President has declared that to doubt climate change and its imminent importance is to belong to the "Flat Earth Society." As we pace, we are now encountering very little skepticism that our world is changing. Our country's race for the planet has finally, finally begun.

Week Seven: Spinning Synchrony

Any description of Week Seven must begin with the extraordinary generosity and love of Laura and Jason, the new proprietors of the Whispering Oaks Campground in Story City, IA, with whom we immediately fell into an easy friendship. They are delighted with our children, and spent many hours during the week keeping the children company, teaching them to drive a golf cart all over the meadows of the park, planting gardens with them, and being a second set of parents to them. We were happy to confer with Laura over her plans to bring out the magic of the Whispering Oaks land, making the campground self-sustaining with electricity generation and water catchment and simple cabins. As we came to learn about each other more deeply, we discovered kindred spirituality in our new friends. They are both from Minnesota, and we look forward to meeting up again with Laura and her children on the northward path in her home state.

This week began with a boat trip in Egon's new inflatable raft, a gift from his grandparents for his eleventh birthday.  We put into the Skunk River, which eased along the edge of our campground in Story City.  Based on what we'd read about the river online, we thought we might be able to make it all the way down to the north end of Ames, Iowa in about 5 hours...with an hour to spare preparing for our climate change presentation which was scheduled for that evening at a cafe called "Stomping Grounds".  But the river was shallow, slow and log-jammed!  We had a great adventure, got just the right amount of sun and wet, pulled out again after 4 miles or so and called our back-up transportation (Thanks, Keith!).  We had to leave the raft at the river access point. 

The presentation was well attended, especially considering the last-minute nature of its organization (Thanks, Angela!).  Fortunately, some of the attendees brought their children with them, so that our own children had new friends to occupy them.  The subject of our presentation, itself, is never fun to share about, but our audience seemed to be none-the-worse-for-the-wear by the end of things, which is actually unusual, in our experience.  I think these attendees were, perhaps, more generally prepared to discuss the grave details of our climate plight...we met some climate "allies" who are already working passionately to address these issues in their locality.  Our audience expressed being very inspired by our pacing action.
The next day, Gavain paced up to the access point where the raft was still parked, and he locked it up with a bike lock, to be picked up the following morning (when we would get our truck from the shop where it was receiving it's shiny new starter).  That day, Gavain was pulling both carts, as well as his bicycle, all at once, for a good eight miles, all by himself.  Cause he's crazy like that sometimes. 

I stayed at camp with the kids for Egon's birthday...we went out for lunch, ate strawberry cheesecake ice cream cake, and rode our bikes to the city pool.  Gavain met up with us on his bicycle, took a cooling dip in the pool, and accompanied us on Story City's whimsical high-speed historical wooden carousel.
Sadly, when Gavain returned the next morning for the boat, with the truck, it had been stolen! 

Still, Story City was good to us.  For example, a cafe owner crossed the main street and greeted us with enthusiasm as we paced through town the next day...she asked us to "let her" feed us...though "The Bistro" was, by that hour, closed for business.  What a treat... excellent salad greens, fine food, and topped off with her homemade ice cream.  Such refreshing hospitality! 

After that dinner, Daddy Gavain told the children that he had a surprise for them as we paced through a neighborhood, northward out of town.  He explained to them that they would see something, up close, in a way they had never seen it before.  As it turned out, Gavain knew that we would pace right by two giant wind turbines... standing like great oracles greeting us into wind turbine country.   I don't think I had ever been quite so close to one of these turbines myself, either.  Gavain guided us through the critical rhetoric about wind turbines...those reasons that people give for why turbines are "bad".  Wind turbines are said to be loud, ugly, or dangerous to bird and bat populations.  What the kids and I noticed is that the turbines were stunningly graceful to watch (rather more beautiful than a black coal stack, for instance), and that, up close, they made very subtle sound...like refrigerator does in one's home.  There were birds fluttering about the roadside, but we did not see any at risk of a mid-flight beheading...these modern turbines turn much more slowly and safely than earlier versions of wind technology did.  We did see one dead animal on this stretch of road, but it was not of the flying ilk. 


It was one of those moments when there is too much coincidence at hand to accept with one's rational mind.  There was nothing with us on this road, just cornfields stretching almost as far as the eye could see and two towering, lazy wind turbines.  I first smelled the skunk.  Then, I saw two bicyclists approaching in the distance a head of us.  "Out here?", I thought.  Bicyclists are fairly uncommon out on the country roads.  As they came nearer to us, I spied the skunk in the middle of the road ahead at about the same time that a truck began to approach from the same direction.  We also began to notice the sound of a car approaching from our rear.  Impossibly, we all converged on same point and moment with this skunk.  It was terrific slow-motion roundabout as we all worked together to avoid the skunk, and each other, and get on with our traveling away from the very awkward synchrony. 


Later this week, in a detailed online study of the various roads in our area, we decided to pivot our path a bit more to the west and take a highway with a nice shoulder on it.  In talking with a police officer one day, we had learned that Iowa law says that pedestrian traffic is actually supposed to travel on the left side of the road...even if it is moving in the lane.  It did not feel intuitive or safe to us, at first, and we wanted to have a nice shoulder to try it in. 

I am here to report that I like it!  We can see the that traffic is approaching us even before we can hear it and the cars seem to feel more comfortable with us, too.  It actually feels safer, though I haven't quite determined why. 

We are now camped just north of Dodge City, Iowa. 

This week, President Barack Obama gave a historically profound address on the subject of climate change.  The short version of our reaction to this speech is that we found it surprisingly heartening.  For the longer version, I recommend that you visit this blog entry where Gavain has responded to the presidential address in greater detail. 

Response from Pacing the Planet to President Obama's Climate Policy Speech

Click here for the full text of Obama's Climate Manifesto

On Tuesday, President Obama delivered a speech that presented a historic shift in U.S. climate policy. First (and perhaps most importantly), the President of the United States declared that continued skepticism or denial of basic global warming and climate change theory is tantamount to participation in the "Flat Earth Society," and is an unacceptable position for policymakers to take.

Secondly, Obama announced the truth publicly that all weather systems are influenced by climate change, and therefore the extreme weather events that we are experiencing are certainly exacerbated by climate change. This is an important shift from the long-lasting quagmire of reiteration that "no one particular weather event can be tied to climate change."

Thirdly, Obama declared that the U.S. will fill a leadership role, not just in developing alternative energy technology, but in reducing actual carbon emissions (not just the fairly-meaningless "carbon-intensity" measurement. Reaffirming the EPA's inherent authority to regulate carbon pollution, Obama announced his intention to extend regulation to existing fossil fuel power plants, reducing emission in the energy sector that accounts for roughly 40% of U.S. carbon pollution.

Regarding the Keystone XL Pipeline, Obama explicitly said that he will not approve construction of the pipeline if it is determined that facilitating the burning of Tar Sands oil will further impair the climate situation. (Since this has already been determined, it appears that Obama is now laying out the groundwork argument for a rejection of the pipeline later this year. This would surprise many analysts, who, up until this speech, were anticipating approval of the Keystone project).

Obama also gave voice to the necessity of helping countries with developing economies receive technological help from the U.S. so that they can bypass the carbon-intensive phase of their energy-supply evolution. While he called for market-based opportunities to do so, we hope that Obama recognizes that the U.S. can and should provide such techonologies at-cost, or free, if doing so shortens the odds of stabilizing the climate.

We applaud Obama for his bold statements reflecting the truth, imminence, and severity of the climate crisis. Words such as: "As a president, as a father, I’m here to say we need to act. ...I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixing," come very close to the ideal speech imagined by our friend David Goldstein in his article for Huffington Post, here.  

We believe that the President is sincere when he says he is ready to work with anyone on this issue, and is open to new ideas; we hope that he will keep the climate conversation brainstorm grounded in real science. We stand ready to help implement a bold action plan, and we are pleased to be currently engaged in the work that Obama now calls all Americans to do.  Dana's favorite part of his speech:

"Understand this is not just a job for politicians. So I’m going to need all of you to educate your classmates, your colleagues, your parents, your friends. Tell them what’s at stake. Speak up at town halls, church groups, PTA meetings. Push back on misinformation. Speak up for the facts. Broaden the circle of those who are willing to stand up for our future. (Applause.)

Convince those in power to reduce our carbon pollution. Push your own communities to adopt smarter practices. Invest. Divest. (Applause.) Remind folks there’s no contradiction between a sound environment and strong economic growth. And remind everyone who represents you at every level of government that sheltering future generations against the ravages of climate change is a prerequisite for your vote. Make yourself heard on this issue. (Applause.)"

We invite others to join us as we walk with this mission...be it for an hour, or to the end, or for any span in between.

***

And, it is important to note that many of the achievements and plans touted by President Obama in his speech will be meaningless if they are not referenced to the carbon quotas, budgets and emissions pathways identified and quantified scientifically. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that such a landmark speech did not mention cumulative carbon budgets, nor the kinds of annual emissions reductions required to stay within them. They represent the only current solid basis for formulating a science-driven climate policy. Likewise, it was a disappointing wave-of-the-jedi-hand that Obama heralded the apparent reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions without noting that the 40% of manufacture which China engages in exclusively for export markets represent 30% of their carbon emissions -- enough so that if the U.S. portion of that export-driven carbon pollution were added to the domestic tally, the U.S. could not claim to have reduced it's emissions in the last six years.

Nonetheless, considering the political and financial might opposing him, we are deeply encouraged and heartened in our pacing action by the frankness and common-sense with which President Obama is now speaking about the climate crisis.

Week 6

The Mobile Headquarters, at camp in Story City, Iowa

Our project did move northward this week, though not as much as in some other weeks. Partly, this was intentional. Dana returned to Edina in a weekend rental car with our children, to collect passports and other supplies, visit our cats and friends, and to allow the adults to take a short break from each other. When facing many challenging situations day after day, we accept that it is important not to make one single other person the reference point for expressions of emotional stress, if possible. We returned to the road north on Wednesday, with rejuvenated enthusiasm and endurance for our project.

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)