When we talk about the climate crisis it is generally as something that will happen. If we don’t get the emissions in check the temperature will heat up. If we don’t stop emissions then we will have more fires. If we don’t stop emissions then we will have rising sea levels. But these things are already happening. Saint-Louis, Senegal is proof.

The city is being swallowed by the Atlantic. Parts of it are already lost to the sea. This apocalyptic reality is due in part to climate change and the rising waters. There are some man made factors, engineering mistakes that made it more likely to come to past but it is being fueled by the rising sea water.

The truth of the matter is that engineering mistakes happen and can happen to any nation but so is climate change. Even in Western nations, thought of as being outside the immediate effects of the crisis, rising sea levels and drought are already affecting the lives of the people there. The climate crisis is not a future problem, it’s a now problem.