Page 98 - Esquire (November 2019)

The new normal is here, in Traverse City,

Michigan, as it is in thousands of

other places, large and small, while the

climate crisis poses the chilling existential

question: Are the political system

and institutions of the United States

strong enough to confront it?

THE

FIRST ELECTION

AT THE

END OF THE There is no beach

where there once

was a beach.

There is a strip of sand that can hardly be
called a beach, and on a cool afternoon at the
WORLD splashing through the waters at the edge of
beginning of September, seven kids were

Grand Traverse Bay in that part of Lake Mich-
igan that cuts into the lower half of the state
of Michigan, providing a pinkie finger to the
state’s mitten configuration. Not far from
B y C H A R L E S P. P I E RC E where there once was a beach, you can see a
dock submerged just below the surface. The
water is so clear you can count the boards.
This is where Lake Michigan had come to rest
at the end of the summer of 2019.
I L L U S T R A T I O N B Y Matt Chase According to the Army Corps of Engi-

neers, water levels in the Great Lakes hit re-
cord highs in 2019, and the combined levels of
Lakes Michigan and Huron was thirty inches
higher than its customary average in August.
This is a consequence of heavier than usual
rainfall, and then a heavier than usual snow-
fall, resulting in a heavier than usual snowmelt

92 Tk