Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

Postscript: A Disclosure
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Mount st. helens erupted on may 18, 1980. as the
cloud of volcanic debris passed over the Midwest,
it triggered thunderstorms and heavy rains. But that was the
last measurable rainfall until early November in the Meadowcreek
Valley, in the Boston Mountains of northern Arkansas. The summer
of 1980 turned into the hottest and driest summer recorded
up to that point in Arkansas history. For the next two months the
high temperatures in the Meadowcreek Valley went over 100°F
on 59 days. The highest recording was 111 degrees.
As operators of a small farm and sawmill, my brother and
I worked in the heat every day. The only time in my life that
I thought for nearly certain that I would die of heatstroke began
at 5:30 in the morning, working to widen a rough logging road on
the west ridge above the valley, called Pinnacle Point, and ended
in the early evening after we’d harvested and bagged 40 acres of
wheat. Due to a lack of forethought, we had only 120-pound, not
80-pound, burlap bags, which I came to seriously regret in the late
afternoon as we loaded them onto the trailer. The temperature
on that particular day reached 108°, and only fools tempt fate in
such heat and humidity. We qualifi ed. Our only salvation was in
the cool waters of a deep swimming hole after work. By late July,
however, the swimming hole had disappeared, and Meadowcreek