I'm sitting here thinking of all the earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes and fires this year. Extreme heat, wars, famines, disease and displacement … all happening at the same time, everywhere. I don't have a solution and it makes me anxious. This whale is too big to chew. A few months ago I felt the need to get creative, and write and illustrate (with the help of midjourney ai) this short intro. I'll leave it here in case it should inspire anyone.
Carbon Sequesters
Slow cities made of fast forests. Bioengineered trees, gargantuan in girth and height, carbon sequesters and life preservers. Cities that are able to withstand hurricanes, floods and earthquakes with little impact. They were rooted to grow for thousands of years in a ruthless climate. Continuous bioengineering, testing and planting gave way to self renewing, evolving forests. Having successfully identified and merged their self interests with those of other life forms (the giant sequoia) is perhaps one of humanities' greatest accomplishments … at least in the wake of near extinction. The social structure of such a civilization however, if at least trained to revere its trees, is not less fickle and exploitative than its predecessors. This fragile symbiosis is in constant threat of dissolution, tirelessly attacked in the name of comfort, and painfully patched up for the sake of survival.
The first 7 years of life I spent with my mother and father, in the comfort of our tree nest … and I should have stayed there. But I took the bait of top canopy promises, and now, years later, I'm scrambling to get back up. I walk and sleep on the concrete rubble of the forest floor. I breathe dust and smog and can't see much anymore. There is the permeating stench of tree fallings rot. The promise of soft bark at my back and sweet sap on my tongue is all that drives me. I miss my mother, and our little nest of moderate abundance. I remember tapping sap lines to drink and wash, and the thundering shattering fear of superstorms. I've learned to ignore the floods and shakes, and instead marvel at the giant cambium carvings on our walls.
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