We are the eruption, but we don't see the flames when we look in the mirror. Everything is so well designed, so invisible.
~Andri Snær Magnason

The Invisible Now Visible Everywhere

Dear Subscriber First Name

As we watched the East Coast cities engulfed in an awful cloud of pollution last week due to the wildfires burning in Canada, I am reminded of a previous newsletter I wrote in May of 2021 titled Making the Invisible Visible- Seeing Ourselves as Erupting Volcanoes. And just last month, I was translating the October 1984 Géo magazine article where our invisible emissions were already being noticed:

The planet is heating up and simmers like a soup kettle that has been forgotten on the stove. The climatologists have a culprit: the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, a gas transparent to visible light but opaque to infrared that captures the solar rays at the Earth’s surface and transforms it into a pressure cooker. It’s the greenhouse effect: CO2 behaves like glass letting light in and retaining heat…

For decades, the scientists and climatologists have been trying to make this invisible gas visible to us with their graphs, presentations, and IPCC reports. For years, the artists have tried to make the invisible visible through their stories, poems, books, movies and art installations. Now, -and this has been going on for a while already but is now becoming more and more frequent-, the Earth itself is relentlessly making the invisible visible through wildfires, floods, typhoons, hurricanes, melting glaciers and droughts. I would be surprised if you have not personally experienced one or more of these extreme weather events in the last few years. In the last twelve months alone, I have lived through three of those: the summer 2022 heat wave in London, the devastating fires in France last July, and the twelve atmospheric storms in California this past winter. And now, New York city and Washington D.C. and Philadelphia and …

So it’s not so easy anymore to ignore the problem as it was a few years back. The questions still remain:

• How big are your invisible flames?

• How much of a volcano are you?

• What actions are you taking to extinguish or diminish the fires that you are part of in your personal or professional life?

• What systemic changes are you instigating in your work place or community?

• Which conversations are you having to continue to make the invisible visible?

Climate action starts within. Where are you on that journey?

Warmly,

Anne-Marie (born 317.73 ppm)
June 13, 2023
(424 ppm of atmospheric CO2, up from 421.9 last year, safe level 350)

Poem: Let Them Not Say by Jane Hirshfield

My Electrification Project- a Year Later

Last year, I installed a heat pump to replace an old gas powered furnace in my house in California. This project was quite extensive and involved- read about it below.

A year later, I am able to do an analysis of my energy consumption and costs savings.

From May 2022 when the heat pump was installed to May 2023, we used 11% more energy units (PG&E combines kWh and Therms to calculate energy units). Since we have two electric cars and since our use of the cars could have varied year to year, especially with the returning to the office policy in effect now that the pandemic has ended, the extra energy consumption may not have been caused by the heat pump alone. It was also a bit colder in California this winter, in average a degree Fahrenheit lower, according to my data, which could have also contributed to the increase. Despite this increase of total energy use, and a price increase by PG&E of 7.20%, we have saved 17% year to year on our energy costs.

In addition, we have been living in a much more comfortable place where the temperature inside the home is more stable. An added bonus is how quiet the new system is.
If you are looking into installing a heat pump or any other electric appliances, remember to check out the incentives now available through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Rewiring America website can be of help.

I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to write back.