I had missed going to the Festival of Nations, the largest multicultural event in the St. Louis region, during the years it took a pandemic hiatus.
But last weekend, long rows of aromatic food stalls and rhythmic cultural performances drew 100,000 people back to Tower Grove Park in St. Louis. I was among those lined up for samosas and their Latin American cousins, empanadas. In one queue for Liberian food, my husband and I chatted with a man who said he had emigrated from the African nation and gave us suggestions on what to order. He talked about his favorite futbol team, and we discovered a common dislike of Stan Kroenke, the billionaire owner of the Premier League Arsenal team and the former St. Louis Rams.
Isn't this a large part of what multicultural gatherings aim to do? Even if we never make it to Liberia, we made a connection to a Liberian here.
The world felt a little smaller.
I remember the last time I attended this festival, in 2017. I couldn't really enjoy it because I kept one eye glued to texts and news alerts on my phone. Hurricane Harvey had dumped 60 inches of rain on Houston, where I grew up, over a matter of four days. Childhood friends had to be rescued from their homes. People I knew lost everything. I worried about my family's safety.
It was a devastating feeling to watch a city become submerged under water.
As the festival returned this year, so did the floods.
This time, the scenes of devastation came from Pakistan, the country from which my parents emigrated. More than 1,000 people have died, although the final death toll is bound to be significantly higher. A third of the country is underwater, with at least 1 million homes destroyed. More than 30 million people are displaced.
It's being described as a "climate catastrophe." Carbon emissions have contributed to the Earth's rising temperature, and warmer air can hold more moisture. This can lead to more frequent, and extreme, rainfall. The warmer temperatures also cause glacier ice to melt more quickly. Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to these conditions because it is home to more glaciers than any country outside the Arctic.
Meanwhile, Pakistan produces less than 1% of global carbon emissions. It's suffering the outsized consequences of richer countries' addiction to fossil fuels. This isn't a new phenomenon. Developing countries are increasingly experiencing extreme heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels. The nations that have built wealth from burning fossil fuels have so far escaped the same magnitude of damage. The United States has historically been the largest producer of carbon emissions in the world.
Maybe it's easier for those driving to multicultural festivals in SUVs to ignore that connection. We'd rather stick to the diversity of food and entertainment and talent the world can share. It's certainly more enjoyable to eat a samosa than to consider my country's culpability in the floods ravaging my parents' homeland.
Admittedly, it's getting harder to ignore these climate repercussions as they hit closer to home. The weekend before this festival, there was extreme flash flooding in Dallas. The month before, historic rainfall in St. Louis shattered a 100-year record. More flash flooding followed.
Even while we accept that these issues will affect our lives more regularly, are we willing to change any of our own behaviors or demand action from our political leaders? Or is it easier to remain in denial about how climate change is altering the future for our children?
At the entrance to the park, visitors stopped to take photos with a massive inflatable globe. Later that night, I looked at the photos my friends shared from our visit. Too bad I didn't get a picture with that gigantic globe, I thought.
A few minutes later, I received another WhatsApp message.
It was a plea to donate money for flood victims.