elders

In discussions about climate change, we often gravitate towards those affected by devastating wildfires, catastrophic hurricanes, and vanishing coastlines. Rarely do we zoom in on the intimate, day-to-day ways it reshapes the individual lives of everyday people. As a caregiver for my elderly parents, I've experienced firsthand how climate change impacts the aging population, a narrative told less frequently but just as critical in weighing the costs of our inaction on climate.

In the blink of an eye, many of us went from sons and daughters to climate responders for our parents. During Michigan's infamous "Snowmageddon" in 2015, for example, my father, who was relearning to walk after a health scare, constantly fell into steep snow drifts. This meant he had to wear wet pants in the freezing cold and through doctor appointments, risking hypothermia. That same winter, my mom had to mail canned foods to my great aunt, who was trapped in her Grand Rapids home without groceries because relatives and even neighbors could not safely reach her due to the massive amounts of snowfall. These life-threatening situations, no different from what other families experience, were induced by our changing climate.