We are undermining the systems that support all people and all production. The pastures sloping up from the bottomland are that intense May green, spangled with yellow dandelions. Our three horses and 10 cows are in heaven up there. High up on the ridge the forest is light-green lace. We worry about that forest.
Acid rain falls on it.
Climate change encourages the spread of pests like the woolly adelgid, which kills hemlocks and is moving north toward us. The chestnuts, elms, butternuts are already gone. The story is far from over. Life is bursting forth, pushing, throbbing, aiming toward fertility, productivity, purity, and the most astonishing beauty. It's an awesome force working in our direction, if we would let it do so.