The sadly departed South Portland fishing shacks have attracted much local, even national news. Seeing them broken and adrift has far more meaning to me now than when they stood on land. How quickly things can change; when things look stable, they may not be; how holding onto certain parts of the past, without an eye to the present and future, may end badly.

It’s understandable that some wish to build new shacks where the old ones were, but buildings close to the ocean are in increasing danger. We’re pumping more carbon into our atmosphere every year, thinking that if our surroundings look the same, everything’s fine. It’s not fine. The climate crisis is well on its way to making our planet uninhabitable.

Compare the shacks with global crop loss, heat-related deaths, floods, millions of climate refugees, wildfires, etc. We mourn destroyed shacks but continue driving gasoline cars, cooking and heating with gas and oil, flying in airplanes, cutting down trees without replacement, driving snowmobiles and boats just for pleasure, spewing more carbon each year.

The shacks are harbingers. Things are going to get a lot worse. But we can still do something about it. We can stop using denial, we can educate ourselves, we can do everything we possibly can to switch to carbon-free renewable energy, accept necessary sacrifices, help others to understand our peril and take action, and vote for candidates who accept reality and will lead us in addressing this growing threat to human existence.

Louise Davis
Portland

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