Could anything be worse than an early spring?
In February, as we shivered under a shell of icy snow, we all looked forward to the melt. We imagined saying goodbye to our parkas and snow boots so that we could swap them for linen shirts and sandals. When that April heat came, we took to our porches and lingered outside to chat with our neighbors. It was lovely.
But farmers were getting nervous. They knew that the early heat could be a setup. Perennial plants can be tricked into flowering and fruiting ahead of schedule, only to be blindsided when temperatures lurched back down below freezing.
Climate chaos is local, regional and global all at once. In 2023, the snow blanketing the floor of boreal forests in Canada melted too soon, exposing deep layers of decaying twigs and conifer needles to the heat of a warmer summer. The dried-out fuel burned out of control when lit by bolts of lightning. It happened again in 2025. We’d better get used to it.
In this issue, we take a look at some of the dominoes falling as we heat the planet, but we also take a look at how we might cope. How can the City make it easier to get flood insurance? Could we learn about climate resilience from Puerto Rico, an island battered by supercharged hurricanes?
We’re stuck with this mess, but we’re not helpless.
