In Typhoon Alley
By Catherine Payne
There is a region in the Pacific Ocean where Mother Nature gives birth to ferocious typhoons: they roar across shores, battering homes and hopes with winds that can surpass a hundred miles per hour. This is where my Chamorro ancestors built a society in the Mariana Islands more than four thousand years ago. This is where I slumber under the flames of the constellations. This is Typhoon Alley.
Despite the full-throated denials by talking heads and trolls, these typhoons become more destructive as climate chaos intensifies. Despite the tongues contorting scientific facts. Despite the fingers flipping through the Bible.
Ordinary folks do their best while billionaires around the world leave monstrous carbon footprints: their private jets pierce the clouds, yachts circle the seas, and rockets scratch the stratosphere. Recycling can do only so much.
Yet, climate solutions can still flourish amid increasing pollution, rising global temperatures, and deteriorating environmental policies. Indigenous knowledge need not collide with modern science. From Mother Nature’s womb, tempests emerge as reminders for reverence, fierce and forgiving.
Catherine Payne lives on Guam, an island in the Marianas archipelago in Typhoon Alley. She has experienced typhoons that have knocked out electricity and running water for weeks. She believes that literature and science can inspire people to care for Earth.