Dilly-Dallying

May, 2026

Spring has settled in the heartland. The peach tree has set fruit, the seed potatoes have leafy sprouts, asparagus shoots are simmering in a skillet of melted butter.  By the first of May daffodils are an afterthought—their showy flowers withered, their lingering foliage pushed aside by rambunctious hostas, bleeding hearts, and iris. In the woodland the thrushes sing and Dutchman’s britches bloom. The pawpaw blossom smells of rotting flesh, and the flies and beetles required for its pollination take notice. The season peaks. It’s beautiful. And what unfolds quietly here is tied to forces far beyond northern Indiana. 

In the equatorial Pacific the heat is building. It happens on occasion and often results in an El Niño, affecting wind patterns, ocean currents, weather systems, and global temperatures. This year the surface waters are particularly high. Meteorologists say we could see a super El Niño and the hottest planetary temperatures recorded in human history.

On the opposite coast, there is growing concern that warming arctic waters and an influx of fresh water from melting ice caps threatens to collapse the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), with worldwide implications.  Europe would become substantially cooler. Sea levels would rise swiftly along the US east coast, the rainy and dry seasons in the Amazon could flip, storms would be more severe. The south would warm and the north would cool, much like an ice age. The probability of a total AMOC shutdown in the near future is anticipated by some and challenged by others, but all agree the currents are weakening.

It’s the nature of our capitalistic society to not take such warnings too seriously. Modern civilization is built on extraction industries with skant regard for sustainability. We view resources as commodities, ours for the taking, and after building a world with untold comforts and conveniences derived from ancient fuels, we are loath to change.

It’s well established that energy from fossil fuels comes with a long list of health, social, economic, and environmental concerns. We can all agree the supply is not limitless, and that a warming planet will intensify the effects of El Niño and hasten the collapse of AMOC.  We know a day of reckoning will come, yet we dilly-dally, as foolish people are prone to do.

Maybe an unjustified, unconstitutional, and unpopular war—one that released over five million tons of CO2 in its first 14 days and caused major disruptions in global oil supplies—has a bright side. Maybe it’s the incentive foolish people need to get in the game and fully commit to clean, renewable energy.

Or maybe it will make no difference at all, and we’ll continue to be swayed by oil companies and their political puppets to support deadly antiquated fuels even as calamity spreads across the globe.

We took a walk in the spring woods today, shortly after a passing shower left a glossy sheen on the motherwort and raspberry leaves. My wife’s keen eye spotted a pair of mating box turtles under a tangle of wild roses. Box turtles are of special concern in Indiana due to population declines, but even with reduced numbers these two found each other.  How does that happen with a reptile that moves like a sloth, has poor eyesight, and can scarcely vocalize? Pheromones play a role, but maybe there’s more.

Maybe there’s a level of consciousness among turtles and plants and inanimate objects, as a growing number of scholars and scientists suspect. 

In a recent interview with Joe Rogan, author/activist Michael Pollan points out that plants have 20 senses compared to our five. They pick up magnetic fields and sense pH and nitrogen levels. Their roots will grow towards the sound of water flowing through a pipe. The anesthetics used to knock us out will also put plants out. When a plant is taught a behavior, it remembers the lesson for 28 days, and if played a recording of a caterpillar’s munching, some plants will send toxins to their leaves to ward off perceived pests. Pollan proposes that plants have two modes of being: conscious and unconscious. 

Plato believed that consciousness could extend to all living things. Animism teaches a spiritual essence in all objects. Buddhism and panpsychism finds consciousness in all existence. Many indigenous cultures believe there is agency in rock and rivers and trees. Jesus told the Pharisees that if his disciples fell quiet, the stones would cry out.

We’re dilly-dallying when there is so much we don’t understand or refuse to consider. We’ve stripped the agency from the natural world with our noise and ambition. We can measure the literal collapse of ocean currents but struggle to respond to an eminent global threat. 

It could be that a box turtle has a grasp on persistence and connection that we don’t begin to comprehend. If we tap into all it can sense, maybe one day we’ll hear the stones crying out, and maybe we’ll find our way against long odds.