Reflections On Elderhood

It is my belief that we live in a culture that is an elder-starved. As one of my longtime teachers, Michael Meade, has said, “Everyone grows into ‘olders’ but not everyone grows into an elder.”

At the same time, all around us are messages worshipping youth — youth who possess a certain kind of body, youth who are consumers and buy into the mantras of materialism, youth who are vulnerable to cultivating and valuing image management over authenticity, youth who are prescribed endless distractions from true connections, beauty, joy, meaning, and purpose. It is obvious to me that so many young people in American culture and beyond experience disconnection from healthy relationships and wise mentors, values and beliefs rooted in integrity and truth, and loving and strong supports that nourishes them and our society and larger world.

And where are the elders? Where are those who have courageously and with intention cultivated growing into the models and mentors who inspire hope and imagination and creativity, compassion and love and wisdom, and commitment to finding our unique ways of acting on behalf of a highest good for all? Yes, their voices are out there. And, too often, they are muted and marginalized, isolated and ignored, shamed and silenced.

All of which again reminds me of Michael Meade's words once again, this time as he reflected that "any culture which devalues and dismisses its elders and disrespects its youth is in deep trouble." And here we are — in ever growing deep trouble.

* * * * *

While I cannot speak to what becoming an elder means to others, I can give voice to my own journey — one which empowers me today, not to hide my age or to in any way disparage myself as an older woman, but rather to claim and share and give voice to the hard earned gifts of elderhood.

To be an elder, as opposed to an "older," it is my belief and my experience that I am only able to do so to the degree that I have made conscious the ancestral and cultural obstacles I have absorbed into my body, my mind, my heart and soul that distance me from truth, from beauty, from compassion and connectedness and love. It is not easy at all in our culture to be a fully embodied human being connected with our hearts and the sacred which is woven through all of life.

Certainly the thousands of years of the denigration of the Divine Feminine by the poisonous forces of patriarchy have been devastating in their impacts across time and cultures. The great harm caused — to women and men alike — by imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy (bell hooks words) cannot be overemphasized.

And I think we have to get over not talking about these things because they are uncomfortable or unfamiliar or might offend someone or because it's scary and hard to truly open our eyes, especially the eyes of our hearts. And this is where we can inspire one another. Courage is contagious!

And I believe it takes a lot of courage to grow into an elder. And support. At least this has certainly been my experience.

* * * * *

All this said, there is certainly no one-size-fits-all prescription for becoming an elder. No shoulds or shame or clear directions. All that I know is that I have needed to grow my heart stronger. To the extent that I have been disconnected from my heart's wisdom and the love and beauty that I believe it at the core of who we all are, is the degree that my growth and my capacity to live a wholehearted and authentic life has been stunted.

This ongoing journey of awakening from layers upon layers of indoctrination, ignorance, and illusions has taken me into the depths of what has been avoided and suppressed, shamed and projected, denied and distracted from in my family for generations. And in our culture — the two go hand-in-hand. Our families and our cultures are inextricably linked. What is unhealthy in our families, we will also find in our societies.

And the costs of not attending to our woundedness as human beings and human societies has only grown and grown and grown with time. And now we have mass shootings and my six year old granddaughter having to do active shooter drills with her kindergarten class. We have massive wildfires in the same state whose leadership denies global warming and seeks to continue with drill baby drill us all into oblivion. We have a government that has been entrenched in funding and fueling endless wars and weapons of death and destruction while denying the genocide and other war crimes it has forever supported and committed. We have thousands of people living on our streets and millions falling into poverty. There are epidemics of racism and caste and misogyny. Addictions and depression and anxiety are rampant across our nation. We have two major extremely polarized political parties, one of which is rooted in neoliberalism and the other fascism. And we have a corporate funded mainstream media who relentlessly deprives we the people of the information we most need to know, understand, absorb, and act upon.

And the list goes on.

To be an elder, I believe, is to know these things. And to be fiercely committed to acting upon what yearns for our attention in whatever ways that we can — both individually and collectively. To be an elder, I believe, is to know in our deepest being that radical change is needed now if there is to be any chance of a habitable planet in the future.

Growing into elderhood, for me, has not meant sitting back and resting on my laurels while enjoying vacations and grandchildren and reading books and visiting friends. There is this, yes, and there is more — and especially if we are privileged. And I take my privileges seriously and understand that with them comes the responsibility as an elder to show up, to continuously be learning, to mentor and teach and inspire, to speak up and act out against the toxic status quo and for a better world — one which honors and protects life rather than destroys it.

Over the years I have come to understand the value and the need to do the hard and ongoing courageous inner work which undefends and strengthens our hearts. This has meant moving towards the traumas — little t and big T — and seeking our own unique and shared ways of addressing, healing, and transforming them. And to model that. To model courage and strong voices of trauma-wisdom and truth and fierce compassion and love.

And all at the same time — and of profound importance — is to shine bright, bright light on beauty, on joy, on kindness and love. This balance is so critical to the well-being of us all. That, yes, life is hard. And in the midst of it all there remains beauty and generosity and compassion and love. And to embody those qualities as best as we can.

* * * * *

In March I will turn 73 years old. I am now a mother and grandmother, with our oldest grandchild just turning nine and our youngest only 8 weeks. There is not a day that goes by that I don't reflect on the world as it is today and the one that we are leaving, not just my children and grandchildren, but all the children of all the species everywhere. This takes courage to truly see that which imperils our loved ones and the loved ones of those everywhere across our beautiful hurting Earth Mother.

But see we must. How else are we to find the inspiration, wisdom, and fierce love to act upon what is in such great need of our attention, healing, and transformation?

I keep reflecting on how it is that the eyes of the children are watching us. They are. Will we act in every way possible on their behalf? Will we dedicate ourselves ever more deeply to truth, justice, wisdom, and love? Will we increasingly find our strong voices and actions on behalf of healing ourselves, our families and communities, our nation and beyond?

And for those of us who are older, may we continuously grow into the elders our world needs. May we nourish ourselves and strengthen our hearts with the wisdom and courage of the truth-tellers, wisdom-keepers, artists and activists, authors and journalists, poets and visionaries of our times and times past. And may we model what the children and younger ones most need from us, whatever form that may take.

The eyes of the children are watching...

"People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do." — Dorothy Day

Bless us all,

💗

Molly

Uncommitted Vote In Michigan Highlights Biden’s Extremely Precarious Candidacy

This is an excellent, chilling, and spot on article. My husband and I have both now also voted uncommitted in our Washington State's election.

Biden is risking everything with his ongoing complicity and support of mass murder — not just the deaths, injuries, starvation, and extreme trauma of thousands of Palestinians each and every day — but also who will win the next US presidential election. This is squarely on him. He can do the right thing. Or he can continue enabling and knowingly participating in war crimes and crimes against humanity. — Molly

Democrats still have time to turn the tide against Trump’s building momentum, but to do so, they must stop ignoring reality.

By Sam Rosenthal

Up until Tuesday’s presidential primary in Michigan, President Joe Biden has met little electoral resistance as he rolls towards renomination as the Democrats’ candidate for president. This is partly to do with Biden-friendly changes the Democratic National Committee made in this year’s primary calendar, but also reflects an unwillingness by members of Biden’s own party to attempt to question his renomination, even amidst ominous signs for Biden’s reelection.

That may have changed Tuesday night after a grassroots movement encouraging voters to cast an “uncommitted” ballot in Michigan’s presidential primary startled Biden and his team. The campaign to vote uncommitted, dubbed “Listen to Michigan,” had asked voters to voice their displeasure with Biden’s support for the ongoing carnage in Gaza by voting uncommitted. After months of downplaying the extent of the discontent among rank-and-file Democratic voters over Biden’s obeisance towards Israel’s murderous campaign in Gaza, the president and his team will be hard pressed to ignore this protest vote. And, the stunning erosion of support among constituencies that ardently supported Biden in this critical swing state in 2020 should renew calls for the Democratic Party to take a hard look at the viability of Biden’s candidacy.

With 98.5% of the vote counted, the 100,960 votes cast “uncommitted” in Tuesday’s primary far outstrip the 10,704 votes by which Donald Trump won the state in 2016, and come within striking distance of the total margin that Biden ran up against Trump in 2020. That election saw record-high turnout across the U.S., as progressives, people of color, and young people turned out in droves to unseat Trump. Most prognosticators agree that we are unlikely to see that level of voting this year.

If even a significant percentage of the primary electorate that voted uncommitted in Michigan either does not vote, votes third party, or, God forbid, chooses Trump over Biden in November, then Biden will surely lose the state. If Biden loses Michigan, as Hillary Clinton lost it to Trump in 2016, his path to electoral victory becomes exceedingly difficult. In that scenario, he would probably have to take four of five remaining swing states: Arizona (where he currently trails in polling by about three points); Georgia (he is behind there by an average of seven points); Nevada (Biden trails by seven points there, too); Pennsylvania (where Trump clings to a one-point margin); and Wisconsin (where Biden is behind by two points). This is not to say that the task is impossible — many of these differentials are within the margin of polling error — but, taken together, the calculus for Biden looks incredibly grim.

Simply put, Biden needs to come up with votes, and quickly, at a time when he only seems to be capable of losing them. His administration’s unflinching support for Israel’s scorched earth campaign in Gaza has alienated core constituencies that Biden needed to win in 2020. Despite that, Biden and company appear paralyzed by an inability to abandon Democratic Party orthodoxy around its support for Israel and adopt a more even-handed policy. The administration is incapable of even allowing the UN to pass an overwhelmingly popular ceasefire resolution.

“We cannot win Michigan with status quo policy,” four-term Democrat congressman Ro Khanna said after meeting with students, Arab-Americans, and progressive voters in Michigan last week. “Every day that goes by where we’re seeing the bombing of women and children on social media or cable news is not a good day for our party,” he told the New York Times. A change in policy is needed within “a matter of weeks, not months.” he added.

Filmmaker and Michigan native Michael Moore agreed that Biden’s stance on the ongoing slaughter in Gaza could easily cost him the state, and in turn, the entire election. In a recent interview with CNN’s Abby Phillip, Moore said “I’ve been saying this month that he’s going to cost himself the election. …If Trump has any chance, it’s the decision that [Biden’s] made to embrace slaughter, carpet bombing, babies in incubators dead because they cut off the electricity, on and on and on.”

In vain, Team Biden seems focused on “moderate” voters to shore up his electoral deficiencies. We have seen this playbook before: in 2016, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton pursued presumably disaffected Republican voters, assuming that progressive activists inside the Democratic Party would eventually support her in the general election. This led the campaign to ignore Democratic core constituencies like union members, community-based organizations, and college campuses in swing states and instead campaign far afield in states that were not realistically within reach. The Clinton campaign also failed to create a coherent policy message, choosing instead to focus on Trump’s invective as the counterpoint to Clinton’s business-as-usual approach.

Biden clearly intends to use the Trump foil as his major argument for re-election, with a bit of center-leaning policy sprinkled in. Unfortunately for Biden, majorities of voters now trust Trump more on issues that appear near the top of the list of what voters say are most important to them in 2024: immigration and the economy. While Biden works to prove his bona fides as a border hawk, alienating immigration activists, voters already believe Trump is vastly more effective than Biden when it comes to issues of border security. With these efforts unlikely to produce enough votes to help Biden win the requisite swing states, the campaign is still displaying an alarming disregard towards the obvious signs of discontent within the Democratic Party.

After Tuesday’s wake-up call, it appears probable that the Democrats have just two remaining paths to victory in 2024: the Biden administration can make a 180-degree turn, join the rest of the UN in opposing Israel’s assault on Gaza, and try their damnedest to broker a lasting peace there. If the administration is incapable of doing that, the Democrats must look for a different candidate for the top of the ticket. Anything else would be political malpractice, and likely to hand Trump the election in November.

Please go here for the original article: https://progressivehub.net/uncommitted-vote-in-michigan-highlights-bidens-extremely-precarious-candidacy/

Record-Breaking Heat, Wildfires and Storms Globally Linked to Climate Change

In the wake of yet another horrifying round of catastrophic wildfires, this time primarily burning in Texas, I am moved to do several posts related to the human induced warming of our planet. The climate emergency is here NOW! — Molly

In an aerial view, burned cars and homes are seen in a neighborhood that was destroyed by a wildfire on August 18, 2023 in Lahaina, Hawaii. JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY IMAGES

In 2023, record-high sea temperatures increased hurricane intensification, raising the risk of more destructive storms.

By Beth Daley

The year 2023 was marked by extraordinary heat, wildfires and weather disasters.

In the U.S., an unprecedented heat wave gripped much of Texas and the Southwest with highs well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) for the entire month of July.

Historic rainfall in April flooded Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with 25 inches of rain in 24 hours. A wave of severe storms in July sent water pouring into cities across Vermont and New York. Another powerful system in December swept up the Atlantic coast with hurricane-like storm surge and heavy rainfall. The West Coast started and ended the year with flooding and mudslides from atmospheric rivers, and California was hit in August by a tropical storm — an extremely rare event there.

Wildfires ravaged Hawaii, Louisiana and several other states. And Canada’s worst fire season on record sent thick smoke across large parts of North America.

Globally, 2023 was the warmest year on record, and it wreaked havoc around the world. El Niño played a role, but global warming is at the root of the world’s increasing extreme weather.

So, how exactly is global warming linked to fires, storms and other disasters? I am an atmospheric scientist who studies the changing climate. Here’s what you need to know.

Dangerous Heat Waves and Devastating Wildfires

When greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide from vehicles and power plants, accumulate in the atmosphere, they act like a thermal blanket that warms the planet.

These gases let in high-energy solar radiation while absorbing outgoing low-energy radiation in the form of heat from the Earth. The energy imbalance at the Earth’s surface gradually increases the surface temperature of the land and oceans.

The most direct consequence of this warming is more days with abnormally high temperatures, as many countries saw in 2023.

Extreme heat waves hit large areas of North America, Europe and China, breaking many local high temperature records. Phoenix went 30 days with daily high temperatures at 110 F (43.3 C) or higher and recorded its highest minimum nighttime temperature, with temperatures on July 19 never falling below 97 F (36.1 C).

Although heat waves result from weather fluctuations, global warming has raised the baseline, making heat waves more frequent, more intense and longer-lasting.

That heat also fuels wildfires.

Increased evaporation removes more moisture from the ground, drying out soil, grasses and other organic material, which creates favorable conditions for wildfires. All it takes is a lightning strike or spark from a power line to start a blaze.

Canada lost much of its snow cover early in 2023, which allowed the ground to dry and vast fires to burn through the summer. The ground was also extremely dry in Maui in August when the city of Lahaina, Hawaii, caught fire during a windstorm and burned.

How Global Warming Fuels Extreme Storms

As more heat is stored as energy in the atmosphere and oceans, it doesn’t just increase the temperature — it can also increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.

When that water vapor condenses to liquid and falls as rain, it releases a large amount of energy. This is called latent heat, and it is the main fuel for all storm systems.

When temperatures are higher and the atmosphere has more moisture, that additional energy can fuel stronger, longer-lasting storms. This is the main reason for 2023’s record-breaking storms. Nineteen of the 25 weather and climate disasters that caused over US$1 billion in damage each through early December 2023 were severe storms, and two more were flooding that resulted from severe storms.

Tropical storms are similarly fueled by latent heat coming from warm ocean water. That is why they only form when the sea surface temperature reaches a critical level of around 80 F (27 C).

With 90% of the excess heat from global warming being absorbed by the ocean, there has been a significant increase in the global sea surface temperature, including record-breaking levels in 2023.

Higher sea surface temperatures can lead to stronger hurricanes and longer hurricane seasons. They can also lead to the faster intensification of hurricanes.

Hurricane Otis, which hit Acapulco, Mexico, in October 2023, was a devastating example. It exploded in strength, rapidly intensifying from a tropical storm to a destructive Category 5 hurricane in less than 24 hours. With little time to evacuate and buildings not designed to withstand a storm that powerful, more than 50 people died. The hurricane’s intensification was the second-fastest ever recorded, exceeded only by Hurricane Patricia in 2015.

A recent study found that North Atlantic tropical cyclones’ maximum intensification rates increased 28.7% between the 1971-1990 average and the 2001-2020 average. The number of storms that spun up from a Category 1 storm or weaker to a major hurricane within 36 hours more than doubled.

The Mediterranean also experienced a rare tropical-like cyclone in September 2023 that offers a warning of the magnitude of the risks ahead — and a reminder that many communities are unprepared. Storm Daniel became one of the deadliest storms of its kind when it hit Libya. Its heavy rainfall overwhelmed two dams, causing them to collapse, killing thousands of people. The heat and increased moisture over the Mediterranean made the storm possible.

Cold Snaps Have Global Warming Connections, Too

It might seem counterintuitive, but global warming can also contribute to cold snaps in the U.S. That’s because it alters the general circulation of Earth’s atmosphere.

The Earth’s atmosphere is constantly moving in large-scale circulation patterns in the forms of near-surface wind belts, such as the trade winds, and upper-level jet streams. These patterns are caused by the temperature difference between the polar and equatorial regions.

As the Earth warms, the polar regions are heating up more than twice as fast as the equator. This can shift weather patterns, leading to extreme events in unexpected places. Anyone who has experienced a “polar vortex event” knows how it feels when the jet stream dips southward, bringing frigid Arctic air and winter storms, despite the generally warmer winters.

In sum, a warmer world is a more violent world, with the additional heat fueling increasingly more extreme weather events.

Please go here for the original article: https://truthout.org/articles/record-breaking-heat-wildfires-and-storms-globally-linked-to-climate-change/

Theocratic Trump Tells Right-Wing Christians They Will Have Power at 'Level You've Never Used Before'

An attendee wearing a "MAKE AMERICA PRAY AGAIN" hat sits in the audience and waits for the arrival of Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump, to speak during the 2024 NRB International Christian Media Convention on February 22, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

"Christian nationalism is an extremist ideology at odds with the fundamental pluralism of American life," warned one progressive journalist.

By  JON QUEALLY

Just ahead of his headline spot at the CPAC convention in Virginia and the South Carolina primary on Saturday, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump delivered a speech to right-wing broadcasters Thursday night in which the former president vowed to hand power over to the Christian nationalist movement on an unprecedented scale.

Trump said during his speech at the annual conference of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) in Nashville, Tennesse that he would defend "pro-God context and content" on the nation's AM radio stations as he told the audience that religion is "the biggest thing missing" in the United States and warned, without evidence, that Christian broadcasters were "under siege" by the left and a "fascist" Biden administration.

"We have to bring back our religion," Trump declared. "We have to bring back Christianity."

Trump: "I will protect the content that is pro-God. We're going to protect pro-God context and content. To that end, at the request of the NRB, I will do my part to protect am radio in our cars. We like to listen to am radio." pic.twitter.com/Vj12kRa27M — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 23, 2024

Striking a Christ-like pose at one point with his arms outstretched as if on a cross, Trump mentioned his legal struggles, including multiple criminal indictments and civil judgements, and said, "I take all these arrows for you and I'm so proud to take them. I'm being indicted for you."

As Common Dreamsreported earlier this week, right-wing Christian Nationalists operating in Trump's inner circle are quietly preparing for the prospect of his possible reelection.

In his speech Thursday, during which he also promised to close the Department of Education so that Christian fundamentalists could take over school policy at the state level, Trump said, "If I get in, you're going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used before."

Reflecting on Trump's speech at the Washington Post, columnist Philip Bump argued that above all else the former president is a salesman selling a product to a key voting bloc in this year's election, in this case right-wing Christians.

The former president, writes Bump, is "telling a group that feels as though it is losing cultural power that it is right and that he will ensure that it doesn't."

"It worked in 2016 and 2020," he wrote, having noted that Trump won the large majority of those voters previously. "Why shouldn’t it work now?"

Writing in The Nation on Friday, Jeet Heer warned that a key feature of Trump’s current presidential campaign "is that he is now in open alliance with Christian nationalists—a faction markedly more radical and opposed to democracy than the mainstream evangelicals he courted in previous elections."

While many have tried to drag Trump for his overt hyprocrisy when it comes to religion or moral piety, Heer says that is a mistake.

"Trump's true sin is not hypocrisy but theocracy," Jeer wrote. "Christian nationalism is an extremist ideology at odds with the fundamental pluralism of American life. It poses a threat not just to secular people but also to the vast majority of religious people whose faith does not entail using the state to impose theology."

Please go here for the original article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-christian-nationalists 

Ticker Shows Climate Inaction Cost US Nearly $3,000 Per Second in 2023

Burned cars and destroyed buildings are shown in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii on August 11, 2023. (Photo: Paula Ramon/AFP)

"This exorbitant price tag, driven by an unparalleled number of weather and climate disasters, reinforces the urgent need for the Biden administration to use every tool at their disposal," said one campaigner.

By JESSICA CORBETT

After an unprecedented number of billion-dollar extreme weather disasters across the United States last year, advocacy groups on Friday released an updated "Cost of Inaction Ticker" estimating the price of not tackling the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.

Launched by the Climate Action Campaign and other groups in 2022, the ticker is based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which found that 2023 was the hottest year on record and the 28 disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage collectively cost Americans at least $92.9 billion, or $2,945.84 per second.

To put that $2,945.84 into perspective, the coalition behind the ticker noted on its webpage that the per-second cost is comparable to about two months of rent, four months of childcare, or seven months of car or health insurance payments.

"Every day that goes by without climate action is estimated to cost at least $254 million, based on recent trends, and the average yearly cost of inaction for the last five years has averaged $120.6 billion or $3,824/second," the coalition warned.

There's also a human toll, the coalition acknowledged, pointing out that the 28 major disasters documented by NOAA last year led to "at least 492 deaths, the eighth-most disaster-related fatalities for the contiguous U.S. in the last four decades."

Last year's costliest U.S. disasters included 17 severe weather or hail events, four flooding events, two tornado outbreaks, two tropical cyclones, one drought and heatwave, one winter storm, and one wildfire—which killed 101 people in Maui.

The ticker update comes less than nine months away from the U.S. general election. Democratic President Joe Biden is seeking reelection and former President Donald Trump is the likely Republican nominee—despite trying to overturn his 2020 loss, inciting an insurrection, and facing a total of 91 felony charges across four ongoing criminal cases.

In the 2020 election cycle, Biden campaigned on bold climate promises. While he has won praise for some progress, such as signing the Inflation Reduction Act two years ago and pausing approvals for liquefied natural gas exports last month, the Democrat has also been criticized from groups who helped elect him for backing certain oil and gas projects, blowing off the latest United Nations climate summit, continuing fossil fuel lease sales, and declining to declare a national climate emergency.

Climate Action Campaign's Margie Alt framed the ticker update as further proof that Biden must go much further on climate action.

"Every passing moment, the relentless onslaught of climate change inflicts a toll on our environment, our health, and our wallets—to the tune of nearly $3,000 per second," she said Friday. "This exorbitant price tag, driven by an unparalleled number of weather and climate disasters, reinforces the urgent need for the Biden administration to use every tool at their disposal to cut climate pollution."

"The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden in 2022, has provided a glimpse of the progress that can be made, delivering unprecedented investments to confront the escalating climate crisis," she added. "However, the Cost of Inaction Ticker shows just how much still needs to be done and the price we pay by failing to act."

Please go here for the original article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/climate-disasters

Uncontrolled Texas Wildfires Shut Down Nuclear Weapons Plant

Flames are seen in the Texas Panhandle on February 27, 2024. (Photo: Texas A&M Forest Service)

The fast-moving Smokehouse Creek Fire, the second-largest in Texas history, was sparked by dry condition and was 0% contained Wednesday morning.

By JULIA CONLEY

Texas officials recorded the state's second-largest wildfire in its history on Tuesday and into early Wednesday as several fast-moving blazes formed what one resident called a "ring of fire" around her town in the Panhandle and forced a temporary closure of a nuclear weapons facility.

The Texas A&M Forest Service said early Wednesday that the main blaze, dubbed the Smokehouse Creek Fire, had burned through nearly 800 square miles since sparking on Monday—growing to five times its original size in about 24 hours.

Evacuation orders were issued for several Panhandle towns northeast of Amarillo and for parts of the city, with residents instructed to go to a high school gym and youth center. Authorities at the Pantex Plant, the United States' main nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility, temporarily evacuated nonessential employees on Tuesday night while firefighters remained on the premises.

The plant was reopened "for normal day shift operations" on Wednesday morning.

A hospital system in the town of Canadian was also forced to evacuate patients and staff.

The Forest Service said the uncontrolled fire and its rapid spread was fueled by dry conditions and strong winds. Erin O'Connor, a spokesperson for the service, toldThe New York Times that wind conditions were expected to "moderate a little bit" late Wednesday and Thursday, hopefully giving firefighters a chance to get the blaze under control before humidity was expected to drop again on Friday.

"It is a significant fire," O'Connor said. "It looks alarming how quickly it is spreading."

The service toldABC News that wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour helped the flames to grow as high as 20 feet in the region's dry grasses, reporting that the Smokehouse Creek Fire was 0% contained as of Wednesday morning and warning of "extreme fire behavior."

Videos on social media showed thick smoke that obstructed drivers' ability to see roads as flames engulfed nearby brush.

The U.S. Drought Monitor reported that a swathe of the Panhandle was experiencing "abnormally dry" conditions, leaving grasses vulnerable to potential wildfire spread. Scientists have warned that planetary heating and higher average global temperatures has increased the risk and severity of drought conditions.

NextGen America, a progressive voter mobilization group, called the wildfires "the climate crisis in action" and demanded an end to climate denial and delay by fossil fuel giants and lawmakers.

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties to activate state rescue crews and support local firefighters.

An unknown number of homes were damaged in the Panhandle, including more than 40 in the city of Fritch.

The wildfires took hold of the region as Swiss reinsurance company Re reported the climate crisis and severe weather events is costing the U.S. annual economic losses of $97 billion.

A "Cost of Inaction Ticker" for the U.S. was updated last week based on federal data, showing that the 28 disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage last year cost Americans $92.9 billion, or $2,945.84 per second.

Please go here for the original article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/texas-wildfire