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Heat Is Not a Metaphor
As the hottest summer on record draws to a close, how do we make sense of the images of a #climate in crisis?
By Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Aug 16, 2023
"I wanted to write a poem about how the extreme heat of the ocean is breaking my heart, but the #whales beat me to it. In late July, almost 100 long-finned pilot whales left the deep, usually cold waters where they live—so deep, so cold that scientists have barely been able to study them. Together they came to the coast of western Australia and huddled into a massive heart shape (if your heart were shaped like 100 black whales, like mine is). Then, collectively, they stranded themselves on the shore. As soon as they lost the support of the water, their chest walls crushed their internal organs. They literally broke their hearts. Choreographed under helicopter cameras.
"I want to write a poem about how #capitalism is a sinking ship and how the extreme wealth-hoarding and #extractive polluting systems that benefit a few #billionaires are destroying our planet and killing us all. But the #orcas beat me to it. Off the Iberian coast of Europe, the orcas collaborated and taught each other how to sink the yachts of the superrich. They literally sank the boats. While Twitter cheered.
"The sinking ship is no longer a metaphor. The broken heart is no longer a metaphor. Who needs a metaphor in times as hot and blunt as ours? Let’s make it plain."
"While change is inevitable for this planet and all life, the heat we are now experiencing is not. It is the result of #toxic systems that are putting stress on every one of #Earth’s #ecosystems at the same time."