If one day the smoke kills me

Content warnings: climate chaos The smoke is so thick you can see it in the air. Not a haze in the upper atmosphere, or an unusually orange sun, but like a white sheet spread over the middle distance. A dry fog. You can feel it in your lungs, on the roof of your mouth, your nose, your eyes. When you close them it's still there. The student union is serving free hamburgers today in an open air barbecue. People dine outdoors like it's nothing. I swear this world we live in parodies itself. I don't begrudge anyone for trying to have a bit of fun in these trying times, but I'm afraid of those who wouldn't try at all. These aren't climate science deniers. These are people who anxiously read the news. But somehow they go beyond climate denialism. I've heard it called de facto denialism, a denial not in words but in actions, but I feel like that doesn't fully capture it. The only thing I could imagine being worse than an admittedly honest refusal to see the truth would be to accept it and…