A personal note: I imagined I would pause this project briefly as I moved from NYC to Santa Fe in the fall of 2019. A few short months after we settled in, the pandemic descended, and our high-risk household has been focused on surviving through it ever since.
I am resuming this project now, and am accepting new submissions. You may share you climate dreams at this website by posting in the comments section on any page – I will only post it anonymously unless you indicate that you would prefer to be cited. You may also share dreams at the Climate Dreams Project Twitter feed: @climatedreams.
What follows are dreams submitted to the comment section of this site from Sept 2019 until the present:
~ Martha
Sept. 16th 2019
It had been raining and raining and my student apartment was next to a little creek that had flooded. I was explaining this and someone asked, “what creek?” and I had to say, it doesn’t have a name yet, it’s a new one. There was a place on a street corner where funerals were being held, and where flowers were being left. I was walking with my prof near this corner and telling my prof why I had been missing class, because of the flooding. The prof said, “I suppose you’re going to tell me your mother and grandmother’s flowers are there?” and I looked at the flowers and said, “no, they’ve been taken away already.” The prof was telling me I needed to just drop the class and I was crying and said, “there’s crawdads in my apartment.”
Also – I was wearing wet shoes I had woven from palm fronds.
Nov. 15th, 2019
I had a dream that there was an earthquake (i live in Michigan) and as i was trying to drive to my parent’s house, to check on them, the road opened up and swallowed me and my vehicle, whole.
Nov. 15th, 2019
The unstable climate and violent storms prevented cities from being habitable. I was part of a group of nomads consisting of about twenty people. We would camp in one place for awhile then leave before the stormy season. We planted several crops before leaving, with the expectation that a few would fail due to the weather conditions, but enough crops survived that it was worthwhile. A few groups, usually families, were tasked with living in bunkers and maintaining telecommunications, which were vital for reporting weather conditions around the world. The nomads would leave these families with enough food to survive the stormy season.
We traveled light, living in teepees mainly. Some of them were insulated and had air conditioning units. We had solar panels for electricity, but mostly used it for lighting and communications. We used large trucks for long-distance journeys and horses for local travel. The most valuable skills were agriculture, mechanics, and electronics.
There was no money, and no taxes. Life was simple but we were free.
Nov 16th, 2019
I dreamed I was a polar bear, swimming through the gelid water at twilight. I was exhausted and trying to find an ice floe to rest on, but none were big enough to hold me. I swam and swam as it got dark, my legs getting heavier and my breathing harder. I woke as slid under the waves, drowning.
This one was about 20 years ago: I dreamed I lay in a field at night, but when I looked at the sky, it was dark grey solid metal, like a motherboard, from horizon to horizon. My heart raced in panic, and I woke. It has haunted me since.
I had read that the hottest days we have now will be the coldest days we’ll have in the future. Shortly after, I dreamed that we scurried outside during daytimes, umbrellas above our heads for shade, living in the basement, never going outside.
Nov. 24th, 2019
I dreamt that I was in a house on the coast near the ocean. The view that I had once thought of as breathtaking was now the source of much fear as we watched the water come closer and closer. At the end I was on my hands and knees, examining where the floor and wall met, to look for leaks. The plate glass windows were three inches from ceiling on top, and three inches from the floor at the bottom for maximum view. The sea level had reached the glass, like we were looking at a huge fish tank and watching as the water filled it. When the water was 4-5 inches up the glass and water began seeping through the cracks where the wall met the floor., we all knew we had just seen our last day as residents of that house. It was time to go.
The house was mostly empty already. We knew it was coming. We just didn’t know how soon it would force us out. it seemed like the water rose very slowly in the beginning.
counter to how I would assume it would logically be, it seemed that the higher it got, the faster it rose. I woke up as we were running from the house..
Jan 19th, 2020
I had a terrifying dream about climate change. My husband and I were at one of his friend’s houses for a kids party. We were all in the backyard. A woman there and I were talking, but she got a phone call and while talking to the person on the other end she locked eyes with me and looked horrified.
While still on the phone she began looking for her kid and before she left I asked if she was okay. She was still visibly upset but put her hand on my shoulder as if to comfort me and said “it’s gonna be okay.” Then she left. I walked back to my husband where people were getting calls of their own and leaving. No one wanted to say what was going on. Then I got a phone call. It was from my dad saying Adam, my husband, and I should pick up his parents and come home.
While we drove it stated to get dark and on the way to my parents (after picking up Adam’s parents) we, and the rest of the crazy traffic, got directed by traffic cops to a huge compound of square buildings. while we were on the drive we listened to the radio. There were tidbits about global warming being accelerated but mostly normal radio stuff. I had been looking through my phone during the drive and it was difficult to find straight forward articles but basically the overall message that global warming had been accelerated.
Also during the drive we passed towns where people were in panic and towns that seemed to be completely oblivious.
When we got in the compound we saw it was basically just felt like a huge high-school cafeteria my parents were sitting at a lunch table we sat across from them my dad gave a sorry smile and began explaining what was happening. Global warming was accelerated and if the atmosphere wasn’t cleared by the time the sun came back up it would act as a kind of magnifying glass and incinerate everything the sunlight touched directly. I asked ”Is there is any surviving this?” He said ”even if we did, the smoke from the burning would then block the sun and then basically a nuclear winter.”
He then told us there was something the government could build/activate but it cost an insane amount of money so they were refusing, but maybe they would. So we sat at the table in this giant lunch room full of people and everyone was reacting differently. Most just looked scared and sad, some were crying, but some were just completely normal. My way was just to keep asking questions. There were huge tv screens all over the the cafeteria they began really reporting what was going on and that the other side of the world had “caught fire.” I just hugged my husbands arm and began thinking about all the things we were never going to do and worrying how painful it would be. The whole dream moved so slow and felt very real. When I woke up I was so relieved I started crying.
Feb. 8th, 2020
I had a dream that the Prime Minister was on the TV announcing that insect and bee populations had dropped so low that we had reached a point of no return, that we’d run out of food and that there’s nothing we could do about it.
May 5th, 2020
I dreamed probably this morning before waking up about the problem of high levels of the seas, so I saw people in deserts around big holes digged to make the water enter and let the level of sea decrease. I remember also some media saying that the maximum temperature that we can tolerate was reached and it didn’t decrease but increase and increase.
July 10th, 2021
I just woke up and my dream about this color blue field is still vivid in my head.
In my dream I was traveling with an old acquaintance and then from an alley between wooden houses, we came out to a sea of manicured grass and lavender yet all in color blue.
The tour guide explained that the smog above blocks the sunlight that’s why the field turned blue, developing unusual plant cells for them to survive.
If we try to dig out the blue plants, their roots will release gases that will add to the smog. But the tour guide said that the gases trapped in the soil can also be the solution to dissolve the smog. But it will be a long and difficult process.
July 11th, 2021
The dream It first started with my family, and I try to reach out for help. I do remember feeling the sun. It was very bright and hotter than it usually is. Anyways, we get helped and are sent to a planet where it is safe.
Something about the United States was said. The “new” planet helped move some of the earth population over. The planet was just like earth. Talks about the atmosphere changing were made and I could sense a shift when we were asking for help. I can’t recall what it was. Life keeps going and its usual ways for a short time.
Then we start to get a food shortage and we had a pool. The pool was the source we used to get water. I remember hearing things about how Hawaii and Alaska had a switch. Hawaii was freezing with snow. I remember feeling how cold it was when it was said. Hawaiians couldn’t go east to get help because we didn’t know how far the world was snowing too. They will be going west. We settled there For a bit.
I remember The place we were in was small, and we were not welcomed by the people living there. That area Was soon To start Breaking apart Because it talks About how The ice Age was made. When the ice age was melting, the shift had cause cracks that turn into sinkholes. It talks about how it swallowed everything around. They were sure this was going to repeat. They were correct, I remember feeling the ground shake and the ocean come and wiped out half of the population. After surviving that, I felt the earth rumble, and then a hole was made, and I fell into it. I remember the feeling you get when falling on a rollercoaster