Thomas sat at the kitchen island in his home eating the eggs and bacon his mom made for him this morning.

His mom leaned over the counter and asked, “Are you excited for your first day of seventh grade?”

Thomas’s eyes darted to his mom’s smiling face and his mouth quirked up in response. “Mhm,” he hummed in affirmation, “do you think Ayesha will be here today?”

“Yes, I talked to her parents last week and they said they’d be back in their home here a couple days before school started. But they also said it was really busy at the airports this year, so they had to leave early. I guess there was a bunch of drama at the airport with people trying to leave Pakistan this year.”

His mom tended to ramble, but he listened as he finished his breakfast. “So, you think it’s getting worse? The heatwaves and stuff.” His eyes darted to his mom, and her mouth scrunched into a worried frown.

“I think so.” The skin around her eyes was tight with worry.

Thomas sat looking between his mom’s tense face and his empty plate.

“Do you want your glass of water now or do you want me to pack it for your lunch?” This was a common question his mom asked him, but this time her words were stunted and choked out. She swallowed and tried not to think of her dry throat or the worsening heatwaves in Pakistan sending thousands of more migrants this year than normal.

“I think I’ll keep it for lunch,” Thomas hopped off his stool and kissed his mom on the cheek before getting ready for school. _______________

As Thomas walked into his school, there were many more kids than last year. Last year there was no heatwave in South Asia, but as the years go on they come more frequently and they get more intense. Maybe that’s why he sees even more kids here than the usual heatwave season influx. Thomas tries not to think about the increase of families fleeing to the cooler North America every other year, or worse, the ones not able to get out this year and are forced to ride out these heatwaves in the half-built structures with homes, workplaces, and different amenities all in one to keep people from having to leave an enclosed, partially air-conditioned shelter. He tries not to think about how this will impact his home where they already have to ration water intake and measure out what food will be eaten for the week. Thomas pushes through the wall of kids to find Ayesha and push away his thoughts of the future.

I didn’t work with AI. I have an ethical issue with AI as it has inflicted a lot more harm than good in the world (see rising energy rates for not the datacenters but the homeowners that did not chose to buy a house near a datacenter just had the distint pleasure (sarcasm) of having a datacenter chose their neighborhood – which is more than likely to be a poor, black or brown community by the way. Also, see how AI uses absurd amounts of freshwater to cool the datacenter computers. This is freshwater we are running out, polluting (it cannot be recycled), and taking away from flora and fauna that can use it. Not to mention issues with people using AI to generate nude photos of people (and children) without consent.). Instead of using AI I worked with my roommates to bounce ideas off of each other which led to deep, complex discussions of AI and climate change.