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STATE OF EMERGENCY
Mother Jones
|July/August 2023
Our crises require more than a never-ending series of duct-tape fixes.
IN EARLY 2023, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a "state of emergency" after multiple "atmospheric river systems" slammed the state. The storms flooded highways, caused mudslides, and toppled trees. Newsom's declaration expedited the response. Police evacuated some senior citizens from parts of the East Bay. Counties and cities distributed sandbags. Crews erected walls to prevent flooding.
While this disruption to everyday life certainly looked like an emergency, such catastrophes are now commonplace, especially in California. Annual wildfire season is peaking earlier and ending later. Winter storms packed the Sierra Nevada with three times the usual snow. Somehow, everything is a crisis but also the crises never stop; in fact, the consistency of calamity exacerbates each disaster.
As we face a future warped by climate change, it's worth asking: What does it mean if we're in a constant "state of emergency"?
This story is from the July/August 2023 edition of Mother Jones.
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