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  1. Believer Magazine11/30/1836 min
    3 reads5 comments
    10
    Believer Magazine
    3 reads
    10
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    • erica5 years ago

      I love how the author weaves stories of personal distress - getting beat up as a kid, Otaz's PTSD - into this story of environmental injustice.

      Humans are just a tiny blip in world history. It's tragic that we're wiping ourselves off the face of the earth, but maybe it's what's best for this beautiful planet. The part that breaks my heart because it's so unfair is that the people who are most affected by climate change are not the people who got us to where we are now.

      Much as early capitalism managed to project its systemic failures onto the personal shortcomings of those it failed, so, too, does the emerging creed of urban resilience subtly shift the onus of adaptation and mitigation from the macro level to the micro.

      A good reminder that people are so insignificant and pathetic against the forces of nature.

      This is about how trauma often makes you vulnerable forever, no matter which socioeconomic group you belong to.

      • bill
        Top reader of all time
        4 years ago

        Bomb comment. Good companion to The Overstory, eh?

    • Pegeen
      Top reader this weekReading streakScoutScribe
      5 years ago

      I think this author is brilliant. He took a very difficult issue, an issue that some find tedious to navigate because of charts, graphs and statistical language, and made it very personal. Most don’t want to sit through lectures on climate change, it seems unrelateable, despite the evidence of increased heat, storms, fires, floods etc...But here, one is completely roped in by the compelling story of a few courageous Miami natives and the misuse of the word resilience. I cared about the author and his friends, admired the people dedicated to working within the trenches of the poor, the forgotten, the hopeless. I know first hand how disaster has to be felt before one truly, deeply cares. I gave money to the Red Cross when Katrina happened in New Orleans. But then I went about my day. It wasn’t until the Red Cross came down my street in Toms River, NJ, that the full force of the disaster, all disasters, took residence within me. I will never look at any natural disaster the same way again - ever. The process of recovery from the loss of all your possessions takes years - and that’s if you are lucky enough to have money and your health to physically do the work. I can’t even begin to imagine being poor, in ill health and without resources. I agree with you Bill, all need to read this. But I am also echoing you - What can I do?

    • bill
      Top reader of all time
      5 years ago

      How can I get everybody to ready this? What can I say? What can I do?

      • bill
        Top reader of all time
        5 years ago

        *read (not ready)

        Horrible spot for a typo. :P

        Anyway, it’s a 10. I’m so psyched on Believer Magazine.