Yesterday a team of international researchers confirmed that human-caused climate change is driving the life-threatening heat waves in the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. has broken more than 2,000 high temperature records in the past month, and it looks like July will be the hottest month on Earth since scientists have kept records.
Again, thank you, Heather. You write what every newspaper, tv news channel, and pundits should be reporting. Instead, they continue to harp on such things as Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s age and poll numbers, and the useless rants of Congressional Republicans. They don’t speak of how well our economy is doing under Joe, or his efforts to help all Americans, or to address climate change, gun control, and oh so much more. Joe is doing a miraculous job given the severe headwinds of MAGA politicians and the incompetent media.
Thank you for always reminding us of the important things happening in our country and world.
I so agree, Ginni! That last paragraph was such a bolt of energy and optimism. Whenever I feel like giving up on it all, Biden/Harris do something that restores my faith in humanity.
"Making the country’s real history easily available" - is a mission statement if ever there was one.
When I open a window on microsoft edge it fills the screen with news links and they are predominantly right wing with most being fox. It's hard to solve problems when the information people are getting is a bunch of lies and misinformation. You'd think there is no more important issue than Hunter Biden's taxes.
Or his laptop…. I think about all this brouhaha surrounding him and wonder does everybody who doesn’t pay their taxes for two years go to jail—oh, they will certainly get dinged a hefty financial penalty, but jail? I think not. Now add to that the issue of him lying when buying a gun—mind you, he admitted being addicted at the time—and, what, bought the gun under false pretenses. [I have never purchased a gun so have no idea what you have to “sign/agree to”.I wonder if everyone who purchased a gun is absolutely not addicted to something (drugs, alcohol, etc.)—somehow I doubt it. Did he commit any crimes with said gun? No. I’m all for him taking responsibility and being held accountable for his actions, but IMHO he should not be held to a standard others are not. And somehow this is his dad’s doing/fault…um, no.
I so agree with you ..they have put him through the ringer..only because he is the son of the President ..how many people have done far more and were done with restitution in a couple of years
Did they do this to trump's kids? I don't remember. I know Ivanka was running around scoffing up with privilege all of those trademarks. Wasn't trump suppose to be curtailing business with China?
I agree. I was an auditor for 26 1/2 years. You would be surprised at the people that didn't pay their taxes. It was amazing. Most didn't even get their hands slapped let alone have their face on prime time news. What about tfg and his family? The Democrats need to start investigation them. They say anything to bash, Joe! There are few taxpayers with businesses that are honest. I say if everyone paid their fair share we would have much lower taxes!
Maybe this is why the republicans don't want the extra money spent on investigating the large tax returns. I am a small fish and have gotten audited 2x.
Learn how to open a different browser than Microsoft edge, which pushes corporate news and hype unnecessarily. Microsoft may have the monopoly on operating systems, but as consumers we can control how we get information.
I may be looking at something different, but my screen is about Ukraine, positive Biden things, and all of the terrible things about trump ( which is in the majority) trump articles are like dead animals in the road. You don't want to look, but you are curious as to which animal it was.
Ginni Simpson said it well. But beyond that, Professor, you really should take a few days off now and then to support your other important work and, god forbid, recharge your batteries....I can't imagine anyone here would walk away. It's safe to say none of want to see you burn yourself out. Please, take care of yourself.
Yes Lemoine, I passionately agree. HCR may indeed be due for a long vacation. It’s NOT my business, but I’ve learned that in our society ‘being busy’ is deeply admired and can become a reflex particularly for someone who’s very talented as well as inspired.
As a young ambitious dancer I was told ‘to take the summer off’ so my body could absorb what my brain had supposedly learned that year. I didn’t, and I eventually burned out.
Now I still ‘freak out’ somewhat if I’m not actively writing poetry.
People who mean well reflexively ask not only ‘how are you’ but just as often ‘What’s new?’ or ‘What are you doing?
People like Professor Richardson are like our president. The fire within keeps going and they stay warm. (In the current “climate” that may look like a curse, but for some thousands of years it has been a blessing.)
Ginni, you’re so correct! The MAGA crowd is fiddling while Rome (and Greece) burns, much as they protested against Covid vaccinations when they became available. Ignoring the truth about Covid vaccinations cost lives. While the same percentage of Democrats as Republicans died from Covid before vaccinations became available, that was not the case after vaccinations were readily available.
Now they are adopting the same mindset regarding climate change. Acting like an ostrich with its head in the sand will not stop the heat, the floods, the wildfires, the hurricanes or the rising sea levels.
The greeds that finance Rs think that their money will save them. It is clear that there is nowhere on the planet that is safe from the effects of climate change. Here in Oregon the Rs regularly walk out of the legislature to deny a quorum, so that that the things that need to be done either don't get done or are watered down. This recent session it was abortion, trans care, and guns. Last time it was climate initiatives and we were treated to log truck drivers and other vehicles polluting Salem and clogging the streets. Much of this effort is financed by out of state resources. We also have several fires going in Oregon and it looks like nearly every one of them were human caused. Last night we have some jerk setting off fireworks (again) while it is bone dry. I am glad to see lots of people with brown grass which means that they are not watering their lawns in contrast to those in the neighborhood who have private wells and are draining the water in the area underground. And of course, the wing nut across the street runs all sorts of engines when it is very hot. I was thinking last night about growing food and how difficult that is becoming. And on the news last night was a story about traveling and buying travel insurance which you can't buy, of course, once the fires start.
The only thing the current Republicans care about is sabotaging government so they can keep short term profits rolling in. The world economy is based on constant economic growth. Heating the planet, exploiting workers, using up all of the resources, migration, suffering, and death are just collateral damage.
Last night, I think it was, NBC has a story about corn in the midwest. The couple had a little boy who stood taller than the corn and by this time, you shouldn't be able to see them. Then there is the problem in Georgia with peaches. Here in Oregon there is no fishing right now for certain salmon. It seems to be feast or famine. Either too much water or not enough. Also there was another TV news story about West Africa and terrorism. Part of the problem is the encroaching desert where there was once farmland. So, I can't give you a single source although I am sure there are some. I have given some thought to gardening and I have done it for almost 50 years. One year we could only water on alternate days although the next door neighbor was watering every day with his private well. We are lucky enough to have about a half acre, but as I was once castigated for talking about my garden because everyone can't have one, as if I didn't know that, I am not always willing to talk about it. But for years, I started my winter coles in July. And the last few years i have had to wait because it was too hot. Today, since we are having cooler weather for the week, I think I can get them started. We support small local farmers as well. One of them has an organic designation and she is not happy because big ag has ruined that. And it's expensive....inspector costs 275 an hour plus there are fees. Not all the fires around are in forests either. We have had wheat crops burn up. And so it goes.
We fortunately had a good snow pack this year, so plenty of water. I just put up the new marionberry canes after pruning out the old canes this week. I am in for a water break because it is alway humid in the am. Next I have to prop up some peppers and eggplants and do some harvesting. Finally have some ripening tomatoes. Our neighbors put in a big pile of cow manure a few years ago and their garden still produces big amounts. We both give away excess. I give my LMT veggies and fruit and he gives us fish....this week salmon (silvers which you can keep) and rock fish. He and his fishing partner would like to go tuna fishing, but the wind is still from the north....maybe this weekend. He cans a lot of tuna and gives that away too. We are lucky at this point to live in PNW.
Here in western NY state we have farms and orchards that produce mega tons of fruits and vegetables, as well as feed corn, winter wheat, etc.
I grow vegetables on my apartment balcony. We've had rain but I still have to keep the plants hydrated. It's really an enjoyable thing and I wish more people would stop fussing over their lawns and grow food instead. The grocery store where I shop features local family-farmed produce. I just wish the prices were lower.
Price is a problem, but organic and local is often more labor intensive. I think it is a travesty that people have to pay more for local and/or organically grown food. It is also a travesty that there are food deserts and now pharmacy deserts. I am not a fan of green laws either.....too much water and often too many chemicals. We had a guy in the neighborhood that I called Mr. Chemical because I smelled it every time I was on my walk. He sold and now that lawn is full of weeds. Mr. Jerk R across the street has a postage stamp lawn, green of course , which he mows about three times a week. He has finally gotten a battery powered riding lawn mower which isn't as awful as the gas powered one was. He does have solar, so there's that.
I often think that the MAGA crowd, being largely made up of white supremacist KKKristian nationalists, as it is, is cheering on the horrendous climate changes that we're seeing. I think they see it as "helping" to bring on "the Rapture" that so many of them believe is coming to save them and destroy everyone they don't like. (As if an all-powerful deity would even NEED their help!!)
Anyway, more Deep Thoughts for a Thursday morning. :D
It’s certainly true of the MAGA evangelicals, who start from the position that God ordains everything anyway- so nobody’s to blame for these disasters.
My seemingly sane neighbor informed me that “God will take care of climate change.” I managed to keep a straight face as he is (a good) president of the building condo board.
He is an excellent president. The board keeps the building well keeping assessment raises small and good maintenance. He is an accountant with his own business.
The 25 million acres burned in Canada this year (so far!) is more acreage than the entire state of California. I don't think the sand is where those ostrich heads are.
As is the flooding and heat domes….and weird excessive snow events/storms. It is said that if the major ocean currents are disrupted, as they may be as a result of ocean water absorbing so much heat, that temps in Northern Europe could be colder and dryer in the future. Learning about the thermodynamics of the oceans is fascinating and predictions are scary.
Wildlife is seeing enormous die-offs and threatened extinctions because of rising temps. Rising sea levels are destroying habitat. There have been heartbreaking die-offs of polar bears, birds, manatees, seals and narwhals. Yet the US itself still wants to drill, baby, drill. There are floating islands of discarded plastic as big as 3 miles wide in the oceans, and we have microplastics in our blood. We are killing the planet and ourselves.
Sat on a boat in France in 2005 looking up ocean currents with climate change (had a front row seat to the changes for 10 years). No surprises in your report.
I was in Iceland several years ago, and they showed me the melting glaciers and how it affected the topology of the land. And that was before all of these heat.
Yes, how is it that in the face of mounting financial, climate, and bigoted evidence there is this collective head in the sand? This newsletter pretty much sums up the stupidity side of humanity....
And the House seems set on destroying any climate change practices.
In regards to covid ( I have had all my shots and was just tired), they ran a story about a major anti-vax activist mother of 4 children. No mask for her. She died of covid (Karma) and her family was running a go-fund-me for burial services. People don't realize covid is still out there. I caught mine about 4 weeks ago.
Ginni, this is EXACTLY what I want to say. This is what MSNBC, CNN and others need to be covering. Someone, some team member must be reading Heather or should be. They need to feed the news anchor this narrative.
MSNBC covers what the sponsors allow it to cover, but fortunately the ex-judges, attorneys, and generals they bring on are mostly excellent. Their coverage of the January 6th hearings and aftermath has been as complete as we could wish for.
I have friends who are addicted to MSNBC. They have to be home every afternoon for Nicole Wallace and the rest of the line-up. And they end up so angry, every day. I think that, overall, MSNBC is as bad as CNN and Fox, because they have to follow the business model of cable news. They sensationalize and gin up outrage because they have to fill a 7x24 schedule, and keep viewers locked in. And they’re just preaching to (and outraging) the choir (no different than Fox News, it’s just a different choir). The nightly PBS Newshour provides more thorough, objective coverage of the daily news in an hour than MSNBC or CNN does in 24 hours. When it comes to news quality, less is more.
I watch a little of all (very little of Fox, just enough to know what they're saying). Fox: mostly lies and outrage; MSNBC: mostly truth and outrage; CNN: he said, she said, blah, blah, blah. And that's why I mostly watch MSNBC.
Ditto. In the hospital some years ago with only CNN. Found it bland. It is improved, but still a bit bland. I prefer the biting intelligence in these perilous times. MSNBC got me through the pandemic. I still find them the best sources of news and opinion. And where else do you get corrections when somebody got it wrong?
Agree about PBS NewsHour. It is excellent journalism. Have watched since its beginning and think that if it had more viewers the country would be less divided. I will say I'm not comfortable with new co-anchor Amna Nawaz's emotional delivery style; it lacks the professionalism of Robin MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, Judy Woodruff, and Gwen Ifill, but Geoff Bennett is an ultimate professional. And perhaps Amna will attract those who prefer a more commercial news style.
What distresses me most of all is the flagrant and arrogant disregard the Climate Crisis Deniers have for ALL life on this fragile planet. Humans will probably become extinct eventually - as most life forms eventually have.
The elimination of humans may be a gift to the Earth. But along the way we will destroy gazillions of varieties of plants and animals with our selfishness. It is beyond evil. It is diabolical.
My opinion (just that) is that many of the Climate Deniers are also the same people who claim to value all life to the extent that they are also anti-abortionists who claim that abortions kill babies. They also still want their big gas guzzling cars and pesticides so they can plant more corn, etc....I know, this is just my opinion.
So true Ally House. I would also add that they just look the other way when a mass shooting occurs over and over again. Also, anti-abortionists are only "pro-birth" after that, nothing. What a bunch of hypocrites.
Sadly, I think you are quite accurate. What keeps me going is the knowledge that the majority of the generation arriving at voting age now are rejecting such primitive ignorance.
I feel sad for the younger generation. The connection between greenhouse gases and climate change was identified ALMOST 40 YEARS ago. The actions taken to address climate change since then are a mere drop in the bucket relative to the comprehensive effort that is needed.
It still drives me nuts that Jimmy Carter had solar panels put on the White House back in the late 70s when this stuff really began rearing its head, only to have Ronald Reagan have them removed when his administration came in!!
To think how close we were to actually being responsible fellow creatures of the earth!! Auugggh!!!
Ellen, longer than 40 years ago, but that’s when more of us became aware of what the few had been saying. They were just starting to say it louder….and we (most) still did not listen. Even now when it’s being SHOUTED in all caps!
They only care about human fetuses. Once humans are actually born and are people, they no longer care. Nothing pro life about any of them. Already they are putting women at risk because medical people are afraid to treat certain problems.
What distresses me most is the relative bargain the oil industry lobby got paying off politicians in DC. With untold billions in profits last year alone, what they’ve payed out over the past decade alone is pocket change.
Derek, I remember during Covid, after Biden became president and gasoline prices were very high for several reasons, including record profits for the industry, an older gent (lol..than me & I’m a senior!) at the pump was grousing about the gas prices being the fault of Biden. I bit my tongue & didn’t comment because I knew what the root cause was.
This has been my thought for a very long time. I do believe that the planet would be better off without us and that we will destroy lots of other life as we destroy ourselves.
Michele, I refer you to Sara Teasdale's wonderful poem, "There Will Come Soft Rains". One particular line, "And not one will care, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perish utterly..." is forever in my mind, both sad and also very comforting. That is, of course, until I think it through and realize that we'll probably take the birds and trees with us in destruction.
Thanks for the heads up. I can remember liking Sara Teasdale when I was in high school....a long, long time ago. Yes, for a long time I have not cared that humans survive, but feel very sad that we will ruin a lot of flora and fauna as well....are ruining. On the good side, I haven't seen them, but my spouse has spotted blue birds in the neighborhood.
I am 100% with you on this, Bill. Every day, I think of the nonhuman lives, as well as humans, who are being driven to extinction because of us! Greed is a terrible thing!
Agree. Regarding the climate crisis, I think it's very important for communication to focus on what CAN be done, and that every small tenth of a degree that we can keep the global temperatures down, matters for the short and long term. Switching to heat pumps for home heating and cooling, as just one example, is highly incentivized by Biden in the Inflation Reduction Act. Now we need massive - yes massive - rollout and adoption. We got rid of our older air conditioner and replaced it with a heat pump a few months ago. It works amazingly and our utility bill is about 30% less per month. Since the utilities STILL use coal in the US, this is a tremendous opportunity, among so many others. Installing heat pumps globally is important as well. It isn't the only solution required for the climate crisis, but it is certainly part of the solution.
We are fortunate as we have solar panels which in the summer provide more than enough power to run our heat pump. We recently had a new one installed and it works very well, both in summer and winter. Right now our electric bill is zero, but it will rise in the winter time without the constant sun. What does cost us is water, because unlike several of our neighbors, we do not steal underground water and have to pay the city. They are doing sewer and street work out front and my spouse reports that we haven't gotten a water bill for a while for some reason. Could be a shock when we finally get one. as we have had about two drops of rain for the last two months or so and nothing on the horizon except that it will not be as hot as it could be.
But Ginni...Heather is summarizing what's in the news (see her sources). Beautifully I will add. And I'll bet this is just a handful of sources she consumes daily too.
I think what people like you and me want is a drumbeat of the good Biden news, the seriousness of climate change, etc. That is what isn't happening. I don't know how we change that.
Amen! I'm so encouraged to hear that President Biden is making this commitment to accurate historical accounts. I'm so grateful that you, Dr. Richardson, continue to examine current events in the context of historical patterns. Please take some time off to recharge; maybe you could rerun some past Letters that focus on key historical events and people. And the pictures are always a boost to the spirit. We'll be here when you get back.
And everyone seems to be unaware that if we don't address the Climate Crisis NOW with strength, solidarity and commitment, none of those other silly political issues will matter. We'll all be too busy fighting the fires in our back yards. It's outrageuos and terrifying. Thank you, Heather.
If we were serious about reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, we would plant lots and lots of trees and do a crash program to develop nuclear fusion power:
Ginni, you paint with too broad a brush. Yes, there are shallow, click-bait driven media focusing on “such things as Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s age and poll numbers, and the useless rants of Congressional Republicans”. But there are many others that “speak of how well our economy is doing under Joe, or his efforts to help all Americans, or to address climate change, gun control, and oh so much more”. We don’t want to become cynical and reject all media.
Perhaps you should pick different news and tv sources. There are many, high quality news media. Why waste time on the ones you say are shallow and insipid?
It has always been a sad truth. here in America at least, that good news does not sell newspapers. I think reading about other peoples trials and tribulations makes some feel lucky, or maybe even superior, to all those famous people out there.
I've been keenly interested in climate change for two decades and have read a lot on the subject. Among the hundreds if not thousands of models, those predicting dire outcomes have proved the most accurate. Yet as a nation we are mostly blind to the scope of what's happening at a rapidly accelerating rate. And far worse is yet to come, barring overwhelming corrective action or scientific breakthroughs to reduce greenhouse gases.
The Republicans are now indirectly advocating death and suffering on a massive scale. This is not hyperbole. Let's hope the Democrats become much more bold in confronting what increasingly looks to be an existential threat.
For those who find it hard to comprehend 'unthinkable' disasters, remember what it was like going through Covid with an Orange Clown driving a car full of clowns advocating bleach, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin and lies that Covid is just a cold or another flu. Proof: People over age 50yo had an increased death rate of 52% if they lived in a county that went for Trump. People over age 50yo in Biden counties had less a chance of death than kids under 25yo in Trump won counties. https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-02-03/counties-that-voted-for-trump-have-higher-covid-death-rates
How about the orange baboon's idea of dropping a nuclear bomb into a hurricane?? That was as insane as i have heard from that dopey idiot. The ineptitude of the Fascist Rethug party is astounding.
And now, a nobody, a citizen like the rest of us is advocating the impeachment of the president over his sons business dealings or something. I'd tell him (DJT) to go pound sand. He has no authority. Get lost. Back to your jail cell.
The amazing thing is that they are not looking at Trump’s children. Some of them have walked away with billions of dollars and did way worse things than Hunter Biden. The world has gone mad.
I know, right? Seems like the whole family had their toes dipped in some deal or other (including TFG), not to mention some with White House “jobs/duties”. I think the current admin staying out of it (not interfering) & letting the Justice Dept deal with the most crucial malfeasance is important. Maybe some crack investigative journalists will ferret out the truth one day and lay it out for all to see, not that it will make any difference to the true believers.
Yes, the world has gone mad, more especially here in the United States. And TUMP's snotty children have did way worse things that Hunter Biden. But i suppose it's ok because they are TUMP's children. I despise all of them, and all Fascist Rethugs. I only wish we could make them all disappear without a trace. The world would be much better off without these criminals.
I totally agree with you. I have been thinking all of the time, what has Hunter Biden have to with all this??? Him and Joe Biden are individual human beings, and both of them are adults.
Joe cannot control of the actions of his adult son, just like i can't control the actions of my 3 grown sons. Just look at the dope fiend son of Donald TUMP, (Don Jr.)and the crimes he has committed.. Absolutely nothing is ever said about the crooked dealings of that skid row bum. And i agree what you said at the end of your comment, Back to you jail cell under a jail. That is exactly where this criminal belongs with the rest of the rattlesnakes.
I’d go one step further, Michael: the Republicans are _directly_ advocating the destruction of Earth’s biosphere and the death of all life forms, including all humans.
I had doubts about using "indirectly." But I also don't think they're "directly advocating." The most accurate characterization is that their actions and inactions contribute to the destruction...
...at the least. But if you're planning on putting an end to the EPA, or plan to sell national parks to the highest bidder in the shale gas industry, all the while claiming to "drain the swamp" and "own the libs", you're damn well aiming to destroy nature directly in my opinion. It definitely is way beyond being naive...
I would venture to say that the Republican Party had either retrieve some of its good history and foundation somehow or forever be lumped with the fascists.
Our host Mother Nature is pissed. A raging fever has begun and the dinosaur GOP will ensure this virus civilization of greed will be cleared from her system. Are we really listening? Relying on government is not enough, each choice each human makes every day matters. My own carbon footprint gets smaller and smaller for going “plant based”, choosing muscle powered sports, vacationing locally, de- fossiling my home, etc. What can you do— today?
I remember seeing a single panel comic a few years ago that had the earth with a bandage on and a thermometer in its mouth. A doctor was saying "It looks like you have a bad case of humans. When your fever breaks, you'll be fine; they'll be gone."
"Relying on government is not enough, each choice each human makes every day matters."
Amen to that, sir! I've been so dismayed to see writings talking about how individuals are not to blame - go ahead and take that plane trip, buy that new boat, pick up truck!- that it's corporations who have wreaked this havoc on the planet. While there is some truth to that, I've always believed it is also our individual priorities and choices that add up to a cumulative and powerful effect. I took my first plane trip across the country (first time in my 61 years to the opposite coast!) to visit dear friends who had moved there, and was expressing my very mixed feelings about it to my daughter. She tried so hard to alleviate my guilt by arguing that my individual trip didn't matter because it was the greedy corporatations who fueled (pun intended) so much air travel, not me. But when I look around the airport and the skies and see planes full of tourists like myself.............how can that not matter?
You're right. All of us are "to blame", if you wish to call it that. At least it's true that all of us, ALL of us, had a part in it. You, me, everybody. Even if you're vegan and use no fossil-fuel powered transport, the houses we all live in are built of materials that sent a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere during their production (unless all of your wooden planks were chopped and sawed by hand...). Vegan food also costs al lot of water and energy to produce and transport (unless you grew it in your own garden). And in the very end, every breath you exhale releases CO2 in the atmosphere... So there's no stopping it completely.
Of course, that doesn't mean you should go buy a huge-ass pick-up truck and slap a "f*ck you Greta!" sticker on the bumper, or disband the EPA and sell out all national parks... That is quite the other end of the spectrum and very much uncalled for.
It's the opiate--blame someone or something else so we ourselves do not have to change. Scream "It's not fair that now that I can afford what you have, I can't have it." And so on.
Yes, I recycle, reduce, drive as little as possible, etc., etc., etc. But we ALSO have to rely on government to restrict or ban things such as private planes, and coal plants, and ALL the other things that large companies are doing, some of which is subsidized (!) by the same government that MUST TAKE ACTION to restrict or ban. The majority of the deadly pollution is NOT the consequence of me, or you, ordering a package from Amazon, or having our lights on, it's the large companies' activities, and ONLY government can effectively rein them in. IF WE FORCE GOVERNMENT TO DO SO - this is where individual action is effective.
Yes re: your comment about Republicans advocating death and suffering on a massive scale. They showed us this ‘big time’ with the political response to the public health disaster known as COVID…
Yes, we are truly the frog in an ever heating environment with nowhere to jump to safety and also ignoring the rising temperatures.
We know how the frog ends up. So, optimism is not warranted. Also, we have built our very survival upon the use of fossil fuels, so, HOW to walk away from them AND support the massive human population we have is not at all clear.
My own hypothesis is: Humans will continue to be frogs in the ever warming climate until it collapses and then, the human population will shrink dramatically or disappear.
Then, what greenery is left will slowly take back over, and over the next 500 million years or so convert the CO2 in the sky back into CO2 in the ground, MAYBE bringing the climate back into the range of mammals again. Who knows.
But, a mass extinction event for humans is, to be honest, the most probable outcome here. I do hope it is not a mass extinction event for the greenery too. IF that occurs, well, earth will rotate like most other planets in the universe.
My thoughts exactly, Mike. I am afraid that putting the brakes on warming to the degree that has any chance at all of maintaining human habitability is unlikely if not impossible.
It doesn’t have to be. you will probably laugh at me and say it’s a conspiracy theory, but what happened in Congress yesterday regarding UAPs or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UFOs) can be the start of something amazing. They have reversed engineered one of those crafts and it doesn’t depend on any fuel that we know of today. It could mean the end of the need for gas, oil, and electricity. Think about what that would eventually mean. I can’t tell you who that is because I don’t know, but they’re very rich and their money comes from the fuels that we use today.”They don’t want this info spread. If anyone is interested, check out, Dr. Steven Greer’s YouTube videos. He is an amazing man.
I posted here sometime back about an encounter I had at my local small market which reminded me so much of that Congress critter’s response. There had been unusual snowfall for my region, not unheard of, but rare so close to the coast (indeed snowing at the beach). Chatting about the weather as I checked out, the bagger quipped that the snow proved global warming was a hoax. I tried to explain about the difference between climate & weather & how the warming Arctic was playing havoc with the jet stream, thus unusual weather patterns. Nope, she was having none of it.
'Tapping into the power of young people for climate action'
'There are 1.2 billion young people and their collective input will have an impact both now and in the future. Fortunately, there is good news.'
'Young people played an important role in the Climate Promise. While young people were largely ignored in earlier Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) now 75 percent of Climate Promise countries prioritize youth in developing their NDCs, primarily through consultations, raising awareness and advocacy campaigns.'
'The cost of solar and wind power and electric vehicles have come down dramatically. Between 2010 to 2019, solar energy costs decreased 85 percent, wind energy by 55 percent, and lithium-ion batteries by 85 percent.'
'And in the last decade, climate finance has significantly increased, reaching US$632 billion.'
'The solidarity, mutual respect, and understanding between the young people of the global north and south on climate action, as well as their advocacy for marginalized groups whose voices are not heard is admirable. This emphasizes the important role that solidarity plays.'
'Young people have been ignored in climate decisions for far too long and can no longer be seen as merely means to an end. It is their present and their future that’s at stake. Their concerns and their solutions must be at the heart of all decision-making.'
'Empowering young people presents a historic, transformational, and collective opportunity to advance an inclusive green recovery, accelerate progress on the SDGs and to lay the foundation for a peaceful and sustainable future.' (UN Development Programme)
Michael, much appreciation for your clarion call on behalf of life on earth; it is of long-standing.
My readings indicate that too many Republicans have been responsible in various ways for the deaths and suffering due to the Climate Crisis, and there are Democrats among them.
Solidarity around the world and folks of all ages may we, the vast majority of us, be stronger in doing what is necessary to stop the lethal storms of greed, self-interest, and indifference, which are falling upon us.
Thanks. As I've responded to a few others here, I questioned myself about using "indirectly." They're not advocating death and harm but are definitely contributing to it by their actions or inactions. And yes, some Democrats too.
Dear Michael, strong accusations need to be examined at the deepest level, so your hesitation makes sense. I do think some people, such a Trump, his sons, Cruz, the Koch brothers, Kevin McCarthy, Joe Manchin, Steve Scalise...and, perhaps, a number of leaders of Saudi Aramco, China Petroleum & Chemical, PetroChina , Exxon Mobil, Shell …have contributed to the Climate Crisis and bear responsibility for blocking efforts to address it.
Other posters have also asked this question. It's a good one. After I posted, I was second-guessing using "indirectly." I used it because Republicans aren't directly advocating killing and harming people by not supporting steps to reduce greenhouse gases. But there is no doubt their actions or inactions contribute to deaths and harm.
We have hit the climate tipping point visible on both the global and intimately local scale. I have lived in my home for 45+ years and enjoyed the presence of a beautiful brook that drew wildlife and provided a comforting susurration to my outdoor time. The brook now floods with every thunderstorm, its banks scoured and widened, its gentle curves eroded, the huge oaks on its banks leaning and dying, tangles of denuded roots visible. Its whispering has been silenced as its flow has morphed into stagnant puddles between storms. Dead ash trees, killed by invading borers, have naked branches raised in supplication. The herd of deer are gone, ravaged by a gnat-born disease. There are no butterflies and only a pathetic few lightning bugs left, no longer making summer nights magical. Rampant wisteria are choking out much of the native species.
The earth, my earth, is no longer recognizable except in dreams.
I am 70 years old and remember when , on long summer drives, at a gas station stop, you needed to scrub off the dead insects that struck your windshield. That does not happen in my part of the country( NJ ) anymore. I also recall that in grammar school we learned about the greenhouse effect and how it might cause the planet to grow warmer. Back then, they did not know if the warming would occur in decades or hundreds of years in the future. We now have the answer, humans have brought significant changes already and mostly all we get is talk and no action, around the globe.
The only way to survive is not to hope. Hope makes it unbearable. We just have to DO, what we can, without fighting each other (so grotesque). R Kipling said, "You take a large hoe, and a shovel also, and dig till you gently perspire".
Heather, you deserve a few days off. Your health is of utmost importance and concern. You have a lot of irons in the fire. Stay healthy. We need you, desperately!!!
Now, down to climate change and the Trumpublicans effort to destroy it. If you recall through history, most Republicans elected as president were always against doing anything to curve Climate Change.
Also, farmers always get the blame for everything. Climate change is no different. Well, if I may, I want to set the record straight. Farmers/ranchers across this country have been fighting Climate Change for decades. They’ve adopted the use of biogas generators that actually take animal waste and convert it to electricity. This procedure and electric generators are now used an cattle ranches, hog farms, poultry farms, across the country. Some are producing enough electricity to supply small towns.
One thing us for sure. If we, the people of this world and this country, don’t change our way of living, we will be extinct and we won’t have to worry about east kind of world our future generations will inherit. We are killing Earth each and every day.
It’s been proven through science the damage being fine by using fossil fuels. It’s been proven through science the damage being done by destroying our forest, eliminating hood farmland and replacing it with concrete slabs, buildings.
One Governor who’s been doing this is Governor Ron DeStupid. You know, the idiot running for president. The one that just had to let over 80 campaign staffers go because of financial problems. He has taken farmers out of the equation in Florida. As Governor, he had turned more farmland into concrete than any other Governor before him. I dare say he’s turned more farmland, forest land, in Florida into concrete buildings than any other Governor in the country. DeStupid has done his fair share in destroying the Climate, and he’s the Governor of a state that stands to lose the most! Right now, I’m Florida, the water temperature on the coastline is above 100 degrees! That’s at hot tub temperatures. That’s so hot, it will destroy the barrier reef, and the marine life that live there. That’s important to the ecosystem of the ocean and planet. Not to mention the fact hat we are approaching the heart of the hurricane season in a month. Hot water fuels a hurricane. It allowed we the storms to intensify, becoming more dangerous , and deadly.
Folks, I’m picking on Florida because I was born, and raised, in Florida. I was raised on a farm. I lived, and worked, on my dads farm in my younger years until I left and went into my law enforcement and firefighting career. And it makes me sick to my stomach to see how the people in that one state have allowed one man to destroy the number one enterprise of the state. The number two enterprise of the country in relation to the other 49 states. That’s farming. Food production. Citrus, vegetables, food to feed the people of his own state, nation, and the world. Yes, Florida used to be number 1 in citrus, number two in overall food production (behind California).
Florida used to be number 1 in Climate issues. Now, it’s so far then the list it isn’t funny. If the people don’t care that’s running the state, how will the people care that live in the state? That question goes for every state.
Anne-Louise, as an ardent gardener, I love your Kipling quote. It is unbearable. Hope and hopelessness are both unbearable. “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” springs to mind. Take care.
Unlike Kipling's musing about toiling to avoid a camel's hump from laziness, his verse edited for the 21st Century humanity struggle to survive would be better, "You take a large hoe, and a shovel also, and dig till you gently expire"
Hopeless and powerless when the ocean across the street rages is how we feel in my somewhat Republican neighborhood. They don’t get the correlation between devastating floods and policy.
Ruth, I too could not find the poem w/ Plomer’s attribution, but DID find this site that taught me more than I ever thought to know about William Plomer…actually had never given him a thought aside from noting him as the author of the poem so many years ago—I even tried to find that exact bamboo book that I’d found the poem in, but my memory is hazy…think I know, but is out of print and very pricey now!. Reading about his time & interest in Japan make sense given the poem’s subject. Perhaps it is considered one of his lesser works (what?!). Sounds like a very interesting fellow: https://grahamthomasauthor.wordpress.com/2022/05/12/william-plomer-and-japan/ This does not answer your question at all, but gives you a new landscape to discover!
Ruth, sorry I don’t know. This was an intro poem to a coffee table type book on bamboo that I had decades ago—loved that book, but gifted it to someone I cared about, but managed to copy the poem in my journal before letting it go. Was the first time I’d come across the word susurration & reading it in the comments here prompted me to dig for my old journal to find the poem & share it. You are not the only one asking! Not even sure I got the author’s name correctly as my handwriting isn’t too clear in my old journal. Worth sharing it tho’!!!
It sounds as if the forest of your brook's watershed may have been clear-cut. This can happen when trees are removed wholesale. Streams dry up in summer, only to become torrents during storms. I am very sorry to hear about the life of your land. I've had friends who's wells actually dried up after clear cutting happened near their homes.
Suburban development. My house was within walking distance of farms when I bought it decades ago. Much of the most recent destruction of the stream bed was from a culvert that carries it under a street that became almost totally blocked when the metal liner collapsed--the township never did routine maintenance. That combined with torrential downpours and being below the crest of a NJ "mountain" has caused the destruction.
Thank you for writing with such beauty about the devastating changes you are seeing. It is absolutely essential for all of us to reckon with the losses that are occurring. And. I have been thinking a lot about the resilience of nature itself. About what happens after a forest fire. After a flood. The redistribution of elements. Painful losses and the recovery from them, that can seem unbearable to those who remain. Sending care and deep appreciation for your contribution here.
Oh this truth is so heartbreaking Georgia. The summers of our youth were so lush, alight with lightening bugs (midwest term), and fluffy brown caterpillars walked our same path all season. Crickets sang, frogs bellowed and birds chirped endlessly in the summers of my youth. Finding wiggling tadpoles in the creek on the farm was a thrill. I still listen for nature’s music and watch for the fluttering of soft wings...it is all disappearing.
It just breaks my heart to think about the billions (yes, billions) of birds lost in the last 50 years due to habitat destruction and the use of harmful pesticides. Older friends who are active birders like me tell me about the huge numbers of migrating warblers they used to see in spring and fall. Bald eagles and other raptors were saved from near-extinction with the banning of DDT years ago, but now we have neonics, one of the most harmful classes of pesticides, being used everywhere. Climate change only adds to the stresses faced by birds.
Thank you for a beautiful new word: susurration! I can only imagine your sorrow as you watch our destruction of the planet on display in your space. I've been in my place 30 years, and I look at the forested park behind my house as a threat rather than a refuge these days. The city, in its infinite wisdom, refuses to cut down the dead trees, and insists on cutting down the invasive English holly and blackberries and leaving them in place. I have a tinderbox 100' from my back door.
Be safe! Where I am in NJ EVERY ash tree has died in the last 2 years. I had to have 14 cut down in less than an acre of woodland. One had a trunk with a diameter of more than 3' which could not be chipped and NJ does not allow the wood from the infected trees to be removed from your property so it was felled and is just laying there. I have three enormous spruce trees that have a canker after having been weakened by droughts and then flooding. They each have a branch spread at their base of at least 25' diameter and they will go soon as well. It seems like all I do is spend money on cutting down beautiful things that have died.
And I love the fact that home owner's insurance will not pay for property damage done by dead or dying trees coming down. The company line is that you are not covered because you failed to maintain your property and you knew that the dying tree was a hazard. I wonder how all the people on the West Coast are going to deal with the inability to get affordable insurance now that so many companies are pulling out of the market.
I was recently in France and I met up with my cousin who lives in Toulouse. We haven’t seen each other in 5 years, so lots of catching up. In the course of our conversation, I mentioned that my car was 23 years old, she said that in France, the government requires that everyone drive an electric or a hybrid car. And no one can have a car as old as mine.
All of France is like this. Cars are banned from central Paris. Bike lanes everywhere.
Food is fresh, portions are smaller, buses and trucks are not gasoline-powered. Everybody recycles. Food markets don’t have vast arrays of processed foods, bags and bags of chips and snacks, sugary drinks—just fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, cheeses, wines, staples. Very, very little processed food.
Houses aren’t 10,000 square feet for 2 people. People have just what they need. No more, no less. No overconsumption, no excess. The US would do well to take Europe’s example.
Not perfect, by any means. But we cannot keep going on the way we are, for that will surely end in disaster.
I remember reading a book years ago about the influence of the plastics industry on government policy regarding solid waste. Basically, we're paying the price of the environmental damage that plastic packaging has caused. Meanwhile, the amount of plastic used in packaging food products, electronics, etc. has dramatically increased. I notice it every time I go to the grocery store. It's become nearly impossible to avoid. I think the plastics industry needs to be held accountable.
Ellen, I’ve read of efforts to make manufacturers responsible for their “chain of custody” from product to packaging & have skin in the game for disposal of any packaging (particularly plastics)—long, hard slog to see progress on this. If, just if, corps had to be responsible for all aspects of what it sells, perhaps they’d come up with more creative and truly recyclable options/packaging. For instance, today I went to the store looking for natural unbleached bowl-type coffee filters. I use them at the bottom of my countertop compost bucket so stuff doesn’t stick & that are themselves compostable. One pack lasts a long time, so I wasn’t seeing what I’d purchased before….but….ding ding ding!…they changed their packaging & instead of coming in a plastic sleeve, they came in a small cardboard carton—wonderful & are compostable or recyclable.
I think those are the same coffee filters I buy! :) Alternatives to plastic packaging exist, but we need to get companies to use them.
A couple of years ago, a certain beverage manufacturer was promoting the fact that their product now came in plastic bottles instead of glass. Really, THAT'S what you're going to brag about?!
I hope they can keep what they have. The far-right is nipping at their heels. Sounds like when I went from Texas to Seattle, so much awareness of the things you mentioned. Grocery stores are an abomination, especially the processed “food.”
Agreed: "we cannot keep going the way we are." Last time I checked, France had 50% the per capita carbon consumption of the US (and a higher average standard of living). But that's still far more than the global norm. And they depend for 70% of their energy on nuclear power, a can of worms that's going to spill open in the intensifying warming cycle, political instability and neglect of infrastructure maintenance already under way. (See e.g. Harvard historian of science Serhii Plokhy in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/14/poisoned-legacy-why-the-future-of-power-cant-be-nuclear.)
The combination of greed and willful ignorance are killing the planet. Just as tobacco companies did all they could to delay, confuse, and undermine studies related to the correlation of cancer and respiratory illness to product use, Big Oil and Coal use the same playbook. While tobacco companies diminished the quality and length of life on an individual basis, the fossil fuels industry are accomplishing the same at a global/societal scale.
As the American political system has been subverted by the corrupting influence of lobbyist money, societal imperatives such as climate action, healthcare, gun violence prevention, wealth inequality, and education are stymied by corrupt politicians, and of course, certain members of the U.S. Supreme Court and their spouses.
At a time the country must embrace a core of facts, evidence, science, and reason, 40% of the country seek to abandon democracy, knowingly or not. I work to help all people understand what is happening and why with hope that people will stop clinging to Fox News talking points before it becomes too late for the next generation and generations yet to come.
As always with gratitude to Heather Cox Richardson and the Letters.
George, you are spot on. Lobbyists = money=greed=power. That is what has ruined civilization. Greed for more of everything NOW. We, meaning Homo sapiens, will survive the climate crisis we have invoked, in much smaller numbers than we are now.. Our descendants will have to rebuild and restart, first by adapting to the heat, then the bitter cold, and eventually to a new world climate with what species manages to survive with us. I hope those, way in the future, generations will have learned some valuable lessons from our misuse of our resources. I hope they are kinder to each other and all other species. We still have 5 to 10 billion years for Earth to survive. Next time I hope they (future Homo sapiens) get it right.
First, I'll try to find out more from my stepson and his Bulgarian family, who did in fact tell me the plot of the novel. But I'm not a great reader and didn't take in the author's name...
Bulgaria is a country that has long been of special interest to me, starting with my first visit, nearly a decade before that connection came into being.
Bulgarians are special, in that they were cut off from the mainstream of European history for many centuries, and this makes them both outsiders and insiders...
However, their own sense of "no future" has been more pronounced than in many other countries. Ever since my first (working) visit in 1994, I've seen families sending their children to make their studies and their lives abroad... Wherever I go, I meet bright, ambitious and highly adaptable young Bulgarians... who will not be returning for more than family visits.
Meanwhile the country is graced with the leadership of the bodyguard to Moscow's last satrap, Todor Zhivkov. He and cronies.
Yes, I wonder, too, at what lore will be spoken about “the ancestors” and the wonders of a world-no-more, by those pockets of humans that may remain—if the lore remains at all. Tho’ just today I read a, um, disturbing piece on the horse race to develop AI (responsibly of course/snark!!!)….so who knows who/what will be the “dominant species” of Earth in the future. That humans can “forward think” this possibility is amazing, yet maybe empty of fruition to deal with.
Hi Barbara, I'm watching this AI horse race critically as well. In all the talk about AI and the "singularity" I cannot help but notice an almost religious zeal. Sometimes I think that this stuff is the substitute that tech-fan atheists created (need?) for believing in Christ's second coming... It sure looks like believing in a "machine God" that will appear and will magically solve all of our problems (the Saviour that will save us - with _more_ technology, of course).
I dunno. To me, they both don't make sense. There's a lot of money behind Machine God as well, and it also has its prophets (Elon Musk et al). This is definitely not a god of the poor, but of the rich and entitled 1 or maybe 10%. And in my opinion, there's an enormous amount of time, energy and resources that is wasted on the summoning of this God that could have been used for things that are way more useful and necessary...
So true, shouldn't have worded it like that: I'm no fan of AI as people have not looked at "unintended consequences (or maybe intended). Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
I keep envisioning a group of kids with a box of matches out behind the garage goofing around…what could possibly go wrong?! Kinda the same thing with gene editing/etc…..and the glee at discovering & creating just because we can that blows past the “but should we?” pause.
Me too.. But hey, all technology ever invented only ever contributed to the well-being of mankind, right? There were never any downsides to it, right? *glaring intently at Mr. Henry Ford and Mr. Oppenheimer*
I began to wake up to these new religious beliefs when, around age 50, I had long conversations with a newly qualified engineer half my age. Now, there have been several distinguished engineers among my forebears as well as among friends and, before that, fellow students. But this was the first time that I had met an engineer who was absolutely uninterested in any of mankind's past achievements and completely taken with the latest developments in IT which, for him, put all previous inventions in the shade.
Later, I gave English lessons to an unusually intelligent young woman who turned out to be sharply turned off by both the style and, even more, the content of Thoreau's Walden, whereupon she announced to me The Singularity, with all the bright-eyed faith of one announcing Christ's "Second Coming".
Pity is, all these believers in this or in that idea , are clueless when it comes to understanding that they have gotten so excited about a concept, a theory, a model, that they've taken it for the reality it supposedly points to or represents.
And off they go forming their chapels and conventicles -- when it's not their newfangled covens... Beliefs, beliefs... Onion skins.
"conventicle".....great word, interesting history. I lived in a "convent" for 7 years but we were very "public" and mostly conformist! Though the history of the Catholic Sisters in the Immigrant Church of the U.S. is crowded with non- conformist women leaders. Much under appreciated and wholly underestimated by male church leaders.
On second thought, maybe they did engage in " conventicles" though of a different variety than the AI zealots of whom you speak.
I note with interest your very telling comment on Catholic women leaders who have the nerve to make good use of their minds: “Much under-appreciated and wholly underestimated by male church leaders”. A tale I've been hearing too often in recent decades—especially in Ireland where the long all-powerful Catholic church has practically imploded following who knows how many decades of ingrown clerical abuse of power. Today, women represent the live forces in Irish Christianity.
Before going on to say harsh things about authoritarian priests, I have been struck by how, regardless of denominations, the most exemplary Christian clerics I have met have shown the deepest appreciation and respect for women and their contribution to the life of the religion.
Still, I am sure some will take offense with me for this criticism of the most reactionary Catholic forces in America and Poland, where such is the passion for the institution and its Authority that the Church persists in abusing political influence and upstaging Christ and his religion. This is no doubt more than understandable, given the close identification of the Catholic Church with Poles' long downtrodden national identity and the hostile reception given to Catholic immigrants and their religion in America. Nevertheless, it corresponds to the needs of the past—“Let the dead bury their dead”—not the present or the future.
Quite apart from ingrown patriarchal misogyny and attachment to forms rather than substance, our world is beset by a gross imbalance that threatens mankind's very survival: the masculine principle is so heavily preponderant and the Feminine still so despised and marginalized that even feminists neglect it and indulge in macho posturing.
Result: societies that are like a bird with one wing.
"Pity is, all these believers in this or in that idea , are clueless when it comes to understanding that they have gotten so excited about a concept, a theory, a model, that they've taken it for the reality it supposedly points to or represents."
Wow. Can I use that quote, Peter? That sums it up nicely, and I would add that these believers are so taken up by their theory that they utterly forget the reality around us which we call the World, or in another word, Nature. Some even go as far as to _reject_ Nature, and wish to leave their hopelessly badly designed organic bodies, hoping one day to "upload their consciousness" into a computer or machine of some sort, leaving this world and entering a blissful virtual reality. If that isn't a tech-age metaphor for ascending into heaven, I don't know what is.
A personal question out of curiosity (you don't need to answer it if you don't want to): I'm intrigued by the fact that you mention Henry David Thoreau in this context. And your quote which I would like to copy reminds me of the metaphor of "mistaking the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself" which is typical of (Zen) Buddhism. Could it be that you are the more, shall I say, phenomenologically inclined type? Some influences from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe or Friedrich W.J. Schelling perhaps?
Edit: oops. Excuse me for being the n00b here. Just found out I could click your name and see a short profile. "Interest in Buddhism and Shiatsu" give it away just a little ;)
Thank you, Dutch Mike. Sorry I couldn’t answer earlier but I had an off day.
You are more than welcome to use that quote and anything else. As is every reader of LFAA. I only hope that, where it is more or less valid, the content of the message will get through.
Here's a writer, David Abram, who sees so many aspects of urban westernized man's alienation with crystal clarity:
Strong influence of phenomenology here, especially Merleau Ponty.
I was influenced by a French phenomenologist who avoided the Parisian limelight, Michel Henry, from the moment in 1987 that I read a book of his that threw a huge rock into the pseudo-philosophical duckpond: La Barbarie (barbarism).
I had always been curious about Bergson but Pete introduced me to Whitehead and process philosophy.
I am not well read and deeply regret not having a proper basic education in western philosophy but, as a natural skeptic since childhood, questioning what I could not understand rather than accept “eat it all up, it's good for you”, I have at least found that, where I asked myself important questions, answers came to me in time. And those in turn set off more questions, still irrigating a mind much in need of irrigation… and washing away some of the ideological dirt that sticks to the skin…
Re. Buddhism, people think that any connection with religion involves belief and those who follow such a path are “believers”. My experience has been the contrary.
Hence those words “onion skins”. Peeling away. Tears. And what do you find when you get to the heart of the onion?
(But I'm no nihilist...)
And have spent several years recently translating a difficult Christian text.
I have lost track of how many times I have heard or read the phrase "blocked by a powerful lobby" or words to that effect about some action the public wants to have done, or sometimes seen an article about how legislation is passed, sometime written word for word, to please "a powerful lobby". That's in the mainstream news. What I have rarely seen, and seen mostly in alternative press is a challenge to "power" of such lobbies as illegitimate or corrupt. I look in vain (though I'm sure the current SCOTUS could find it, perhaps citing ancient imperial manuscripts) where lobbies are granted any legal right to veto popular initiatives,, and where Congress is given an duty or even any right to accede to them.
I Agree, JL, lobbyists are like cockroaches and termites - they survive.. They survive on the greed of politicians and political parties. There are a very few exceptional politicians who refuse to take money from lobbyists (or at least claim to) 3 names come to mind, 2 Democrats, one Independent, Zero Republicans. The largest feeders at the trough seem to be the political parties, DNC, DCCC, DSCC, RNC. As far as I can tell, the only reasons for their existence is to collect money and feed a large portion of that to mainstream media.. My understanding is that at one time, they sought and trained viable candidates in various States as needed. ALEC when it was formed in the early 1970's had the jobs of 1) taking over the State legislatures of all less populous States for the Republican Party, and then writing all the needed legislation. Among the founders of ALEC were the Koch brothers.
Jack Abramoff was convicted of bribery in his lobbying efforts. He claims he was just doing what lobbyists do. Considering the seemingly patent conflicts of interest one commonly sees public officials shrug away, his account seems at least partially plausible:
Abramoff describes how he "lavished contributions, meals, event tickets, travel, golf and jobs on innumerable federal public officials with the expectation or understanding that they would take official actions on my behalf or on behalf of my clients."
"As a lobbyist, I thought it only natural and right that my clients should reward those members who saved them such substantial sums with generous contributions," he writes. "This quid pro quo became one of hallmarks of our lobbying efforts."
He also describes wooing congressional staffers -- particularly chiefs of staff -- with the lure of future employment. "After a number of meetings with them, possibly including meals or rounds of golf, I would say a few magic words: 'When you are done working for the Congressman, you should come work for me at my firm.' "With that, assuming the staffer had any interest in leaving Capitol Hill for K Street -- and almost 90 percent of them do, I would own him and, consequently, that entire office. No rules had been broken, at least not yet. No one even knew what was happening, but suddenly, every move that staffer made, he made with his future at my firm in mind.
Thank you JL, I'm glad Abramoff was brought to justice. Why weren't the legislators and chiefs of staff also brought to justice? If as we say "No one is above the law", then no one should be excepted. When I was a teacher, and a County worker I had to sign under penalty of perjury documents, every year of my employment, stating I would not and had not accepted any gratuity from any individual or company and that neither I nor any member of my immediate family held any stocks from any company doing business with the school district, or the County in which I worked. Even when I went to work for privately owned businesses doing business with State, District, or County with which I was consulting. I couldn't even buy a cup of coffee for a government employee. In addition we had to watch annually very boring videos on the subject of bribery or sexual harassment. It didn't matter if I was working for a giant corporation or a small consulting firm, the same restrictions applied. I would be amazed if these requirements did not apply to legislative employees. I know both the House of Representatives and the Senate have codes of ethics and ethics committees. The problem is they are run and enforced by the chickens not the foxes.
There is no shortage of compelling evidence that earnest and careful people can be and are subconsciously biased by any number of factors, and a lot of it is inevitable. That's to say nothing of those who regard those with ethics as fair game to be exploited. We cannot eliminate our biases but we can sometimes ad balance to them, identify and monitor them, and follow protocols to avoid them, as in randomized and fastidiously documented scientific research, or in the avoidance of obviously potential conflicts of interest as you describe. My father worked for a large corporation that fired several executives for accepting significant gifts from vendors to the company. The potential conflict of interest in chumming up with those you must sort dispassionately seems abundantly self-evident, yet politicians bristle and brazen out de facto bribery, as though their resistance to bias was a foregone conclusion. I read a statement by John Roberts, bereft of evidence, that Supreme Court justices were ipso facto, thus immune; a self-serving conceit or lie, if there ever ways one.
And We the People, perhaps because our own unexamined biases get in the way, seem far more ready to grant impunity to celebrities; entertainers as well as politicians, when they behave in ways we would decisively condemn for those in less prominent roles; sometimes stunningly. I know well educated people in responsible jobs who STILL think Trump walks on water. It's hard, and I'm no great example, but we as individuals and a society need to taking more long, hard looks in the mirror. At any time reality can crush us like bugs, but fortune favors seeking out reality and learning her ways.
Wondering if it is as many as 40%. I say this as a person who was in New York City in 2001. After September 11, the degree of human kindness, bravery and common sense that we encountered was something I'd never imagined. Almost without exception, I saw everywhere the essential goodness and generosity in people. Sharing resources without being asked to. Neighbors caring for neighbors. Individuals and communities looking out for each other. Same when we've had additional events that have shut down much of the infrastructure. So. I just wonder whether there are ways to make more visible the actual numbers of our fellow citizens who fall into that category. Fox News viewership does seem to be an important number. The only resource I've come across that, to me, addresses the proposition that people generally have good sense when they are called to use it, is Vote Forward. Mobilizing individuals who are eligible to vote, to do so. Here's a link: https://votefwd.org/
I remember those days as well. A week or so later, my partner and I flew to Yellowstone on a long-planned vacation, and when people found out we were New Yorkers, they hugged us. It was healing to be recognized and in nature, but I was triggered every time I saw smoke. And ultimately the nation was maneuvered into fighting a war in Iraq, rather than Saudi Arabia where the highjackers originated, and we've been paying for it ever since.
I am not well informed enough to understand the complicated politics, but I wonder to what degree the CIA-sponsored overthrow of secular Mosaddegh in Iran fostered "Islamic" extremism, and to what degree the Middle East would be off our RADAR if there was not so much oil in the region?
I think that due in part to our deliberate misinterpretation of the Second Amendment, and our recent history of slavery and the slaughtering of native residents of North America, there is a deep cult of violence in the US. The US is known for it in Europe. Even the message of National Anthem, despite the social aims of our revolution and Constitution, is focused on battle. I recall in the days after the 9/11 attack, someone put up a Website of gathering across the world of memorial gatherings in solidarity with our country. There were pages of such photographs. My recollection is that many other societies offered to stand with us against the cruel attackers. It is also my recollection that the Republican Party dismissed such support, choosing to exploit the tragedy to unleash military adventurism. They dismissed the UN and "old Europe", fabricated the "Coalition of the Willing", declared that we could no longer wait for our casus belli in Iraq to be verified, and marched, with apparent visions of converting oil rich Iraq to a client state, into a military quagmire. Republican campaigns against settled law protecting human rights and social diversity and justice is also violent, even if no firearms are displayed.
Ironically this is mostly being done under a claim of the authority of a religion that preaches "love thy enemy". I have heard repeatedly that while we must take absolutely literally that the Universe came to be in as it is in six days, and that Noah managed to preserve two of every species on earth on the Ark, that Jesus teaching against violence cannot be taken literally, and one must have special knowledge to know what he really meant. I don't know how many people embrace the cult of violence fully. I think many go along with it because they are not exposed to better information.
Might Tocarczuk's ideas be valuable in conceiving how to move forward against the scourge of Republican war mongering? And it's not just Republicans...
It seems to me that evil is abuse of power, even on much smaller scales than war. I part with absolute pacifists in believing that "necessary" violence in authentic self-defense is legitimate, but only as an authentic last resort. I liken violence to aggressive chemotherapy that always does unfortunate harm, yet carefully applied, can save or extend a life. I admire the martial art (that my daughter studied) of Aikido, that uses physics and finesse to redirect the force of an aggressive attack. I believe that a key role of legitimate government is to not only require inevitable conflicts be settled peacefully, but to, so far as practical, provide access to just and effective peaceful means for doing so. The role of police is to keep harm to a minimum. It seems to me that the cult gun culture sees guns as a talisman, a declaration of a presumed right to use deadly force at will, if only in fantasy, and too often, acting out with deadly results. I would not put all gun owners in that category, but know from experience that some people get disturbingly weird about them.
The wealthy people and corporations who pay the lobbyists and buy legislators are the instigators, but the are 74 million willfully ignorant co-conspirators. The 74 million are the unsolvable part of the problem.
Very true Rex. After I re-read what I wrote I thought I should add Koch, Barre Seid, any many more of the 1% who do all they can to concentrate more wealth/power while weakening the United States through dividing and conquering. It is maddening. I'm not giving up on the 74 million -however, to your point, in 2016 people voted for the corrupt incompetent narcissist criminal and his theocratic sidekick -not having any experience. In 2020 -anyone who voted for the criminal organization had four years of racism, incompetence, corruption, misogyny, and attempts at authoritarianism. I consider them to be "factose" intolerant.
Factose intolerant, indeed! But I don’t see any justification for hoping that their condition can be remediated in time to preserve sufficient livable space for the earth’s large mammals.
I'm not sure that the problem is unsolvable, or at least totally unsolvable. We saw a lot of the same plutocratic swagger and corruption in "The Gilded Age", but collaborative push-back expanded rights and the middle class. Not perfection by any means, but generally trending toward social justice, and even environmental responsibility. I don't recall who said it and I don't know if what he said is strictly true, but some years ago someone on the radio spoke a turning point when the media dialed down speaking of the public as "workers" and increasingly used the word "consumers". Of course most adults are simultaneously workers and consumers, but somehow, to me, the "consumer" role sounds far more passive, and I think that mass media has consistently encouraged a state of public passivity that is inimical to democracy and which has allowed a massive shift of power to occur to those with more money within my lifetime.
"A shrewd victor will, if possible, always present his demands to the vanquished in installments." - Hitler
Professor Ian Lowe of Australia’s Griffith University told The Guardian that he recalled reading the 1985 report that identified the link between greenhouse gasses and climate change, and worked to draw public attention to it. “Now all the projected changes are happening,” he said. “I reflect on how much needless environmental damage and human suffering will result from the work of those politicians, business leaders and public figures who have prevented concerted action. History will judge them very harshly.”
The bigger problem is that these changes are accelerating, likely resulting in the fact that there will be no human history to record the judgement.
KEM, my thought exactly, when I read that statement by Ian Lowe. “....there will be no human history to record the judgement.” I feel very sad this morning, sitting in the cool, rainy monsoon in India. I cannot imagine being able to live anywhere in the coming decade. I am now just 74. This feels like a “Chicken Little” moment. OMG.
This comment of yours -- this witness statement -- needs to be broadcast.
In another comment on Professor Lowe's statement, Jim Cossitt puts his finger on what he sees as a "human inability to accurately perceive, analyze and mitigate risk".
But the failing is not "human".
Human beings share built-in survival mechanisms with other life forms. The threat to the survival of human and other living beings on earth arises from the total dependence of supposedly "civilized" urban man on thought processes and technological add-ons that have resulted in divorce -- total alienation -- from the natural environment.
The original inhabitants of the Americas built great civilizations that grew up and ultimately failed, but these peoples and other so-called "primitives" throughout the world never lost awareness of man's interdependence with the natural world, always falling back on innate resources so neglected in recent centuries that they have been forgotten.
Our only hope lies in rediscovering what we ultimately are and freeing ourselves from the heavy chains of total dependence on all that we are not.
I'm more optimistic because those tipping points will take time to have an effect. We have the technology to reduce humanity's impact on the climate. Will it be enough? No. Will humanity survive? Most likely. Will future generations be happy campers? Maybe not as happy as we are, but they will survive and maybe even thrive.
One mega-trend not talked about much is the reduced investment in hydrocarbon exploration even as demand for energy is rising faster that expansion of use of renewable energy sources can accommodate. Oil will become expensive enough to force a more rapid switch to renewables. Oil companies will profit, of course, but society will change because it won't have a choice. I mean, even ExxonMobil is investing billions in carbon capture and storage and in lithium mining to support the increased demand for electricity storage batteries.
Another mega trend is reduced birth rates almost everywhere. This will reduce the strain on natural resources. However, new economic models are needed to avoid economic calamity.
The future willll be more interesting and challenging that our present, but I am hopeful humanity will adapt
I wish I could share your optimism, but when forecasts show the point of no return occurring as soon as 2 to 6 years from now, I don't think the results of "investments" will happen within that short a time period. At this point, I don't think even drastically reduced consumption wold be enough change.
To me, it’s basically a thing chemists call a “runaway reaction”. It speeds up itself, and therefore it progresses exponentially - meaning the thing seems to be running fine and then suddenly blows up in your face before you know it. Already in 1912 (!!) scientists warned about the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide*1). We’re now more than 100 years further, with absolutely no reduction in CO2 emissions, rather the opposite: CO2 levels keep rising year after year, even after every climate convention…
*1) See “The Rodney & Otamatea Times (Waitemata & Kaipara Gazettte)” of August 14, 1912.
Those worst case scenarios occuring that soon are quite low probability. I'm not saying, "We'll be fine." I'm saying we have a good chance to avoiding the worst regardless of Republican obstruction. Physics, economics, and public opinion will override their resistance - likely not in time to avoid hitting an early tipping point, but in time to avoid the worst.
The earth is big and humans are pretty adaptable. Climate abuse may not extinguish our species but is likely to cause great catastrophes. Doing something different may soon be imposed on us. That said, we harbor additions paths to destruction that arise from our collective irresponsibility and/or selfishness.
I think you meant "addictions" and, if so, that expresses it well.
But when you say that "Doing something different MAY SOON be imposed on us" that's too much like telling an alcoholic who's already developing cirrhosis of the liver that he may "soon" have to stop drinking.
With premature chemo I'd have been dead 20 years ago, I got my heavy and effective treatment 15 years ago and am duly grateful.
As for your question, I'm keen on showing films - newsreels, The Triumph of the Will, etc. etc. that display the rise and rise of role models Hitler and Mussolini, to whet their appetite. Then, downfall.
KEM, the Earth has time—approx 5 billion years, give or take a day or so—to evolve another intelligent/dominant species (I have read that Homo sapiens are currently considered the apex predator on Earth)…hard to know if we will or, if we do, there will be any evidence left of our time here. A speculative short story on such a theory to tickle your fancy: https://www.vice.com/en/article/3kj4y8/gavin-schmidt-fiction-under-the-sun
Oh, I should add that if we humans can’t hack it, we will be ultimately recycled into whatever comes next—as is all matter. Nothing, after all, is wasted. In a weird way that gives me comfort to know that some random molecules of “me” shall be utilized to create something else…or to float around until its needed/used.
Thank you, Professor Richardson. Fifty years ago, I was living in Maine, and wound up with a job in the High Arctic, with the US National Weather Service. I have seen, firsthand, in my lifetime, the catastrophic effects of human and industrial activity. The damage at higher latitudes is now extending to lower latitudes where most of humanity lives. I am not optimistic. The only answer IMHO is a drastic reduction in the earth’s human population. I pray that natural processes (reduced fertility, lower rates of marriage etc) will produce that result. The only other alternatives are far more painful. Meanwhile, the Republican Party is a fossil. Unhappily, it is turning America into a fossil as well. Unless Americans can reject this new Know-Nothingism, we deserve our fate.
Eric, since you have personal experience in the High Arctic, would you kindly indulge me and read "The Treeline" by Ben Rawlence? Many libraries have it. I have read it three times in the past 12 months. Thank you!
Thanks for the advice. I’ll look into it. I have observed tree lines at several different locations and latitudes. The lack of trees creates an otherworldly experience. One of my excursions was rather dangerous.
Rawlence spent 7 years tracking the changes in various locations including Wales, Scotland, Norway, Russia, Alska, Greenland, and Canada, all as far north as the trees grow. He argues that the 2 degree tipping point is already in the "pipeline" and cannot be averted. He interviewed the locals, natives, etc. If you have any interest in the area from your work there, it's a must-read. Thanks for your response.
The ocean circulation disruption is ominous. It is just one of a slew of specific tipping points that are MODELED to occur sequentially as temperatures continue to rise. When one reads what they are, the scary scenarios makes sense, and made even more scary when one realizes that those models have been more right than wrong. A good layman's summary is provided in the following link:
Of course the models have a range of uncertainty that we should endeavor to resolve with more detailed data (for instance a global grid of measurements of ocean temperatures, currents, and salinity). However, there is enough technical knowledge upon which we could act now. Biden's policies support just that (though I would add more nuclear power). That the Republicans are resisting and promising to dismantle efforts to curb human'-caused climate change is stupid snd criminal. And hopefully toxic to their chances for election success...
Yes, the ocean currents and the jet streams are the Earth’s circulatory system & they are currently on life support. So far I have yet to see a techno-pacemaker that will “fix” things (human hubris=what could possibly go wrong w/ any fix we “devise”?).
Love this! Thanks for the (sick) chuckle!!!!! Oh, and a supply to the Antarctic as well…heck, dispatch them across the globe where glaciers are melting too.
As they endeavored to dismantle efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 (see 100Panthers above); malicious madness servicing petty, plutocratic motives.
Jerry, here is a Guardian article—just published today—about the 2025 Project from Heritage Foundation & how it impacts climate change legislation in Congress & what, sadly, the current Republican majority is doing to quash any efforts to deal with it:
Actually we knew about climate change back in the 70’s and the Carter Administration took it seriously at a time where we could do something about it. Reaction to this brought on the Regan Revolution...where a McCarthyism approach to science and facts started the NYT Sunday edition in 2018 covered this. I don’t have it handy but should be read by all. Thanks Heather!!!
Mike Pence is typical of the fundamentalist Christians. They believe what they believe and don't bother them with facts. I first learned about the beginnings of global warming in an ecology class in 1970, at that time the professor "thought" we would have at least 100 years to fix 'things'. Now, 50 years later, from what I read, we may already have passed to point of no return. Some people argue, well we deserve what we get as we have only ourselves to blame. But that isn't true. We are taking down millions of other organisms with us. We used to joke in biology about cockroaches surviving anything. Well I hope they suddenly develop intelligence. But then again we are the most intelligent species to evolve so far and we certainly haven't used that intelligence well.
Ah, but Fay, ARE we the most intelligent on earth? I posit that we are too full of ourselves that all but a very few are even trying to determine that by communicating with our fellow creatures. Oh, we humans are clever and industrious to be sure—after all look what we’ve accomplished!—but just perhaps there are other beings who move to a different beat within the ecosystem than we & maybe have a wisdom/knowledge that we do not. Just a mind puzzle.
You are so right, Barbara. Our accomplishments are judged by our own mindsets. Thinking of other ways to be, these accomplishments look like disasters. The circle of life will continue, with or without us, but we are making it so painfully difficult.
I'm normally not a militant person, but I wish thunderbolts and lightning would strike down those obstinate and incorrigible repubs - first tfg was publishing his plans for a dictatorship, now his former sidekick announces that he would do away with the EPA and other urgently needed remedies Biden has announced which are dealing with climate change. Obviously, these stupid people don't see or feel the heat that's building up across the globe, while they are sitting in their airconditioned super yachts. I trust that Nature will take revenge on them first, and that the younger generation will not tolerate this nonsense to become reality.
The problem is, Marli, Pence, Trump and their ilk are old - not quite as old as me, but approaching my age. But, they are so self centered, they don't give a damn. Their children, their grandchildren, who cares? I left them enough money, let them fend for themselves. It's all about ME.
It would be nice to hear what tfg's youngest and the other stupidos' kids have to say about their fathers' stupid plans. Are those kids brainwashed or do they see the death traps organized by their own fathers?
My guess is they don’t care, either. They have their money and their minions, and are probably thinking they can live out a comfortable life holed up in a big fortress stacked with dollars and guns, saying: “Let all those poor suckers out there die. See if I care.”
Well, the thunderbolts and lightning struck Mitch McConnell dumb just as he began a press conference. After a few minutes of glassy silence, they escorted him away. To be continued...I guess.
I was appalled that he wasn’t whisked away to the ER. I cannot stand the man, but having the political optics make such a stupid, stupid choice to rejoin the press conference after his seizure or stroke or whatever it was, was insane. Fun fact: Kentucky republicans in 2020 (I think) changed the law such that the (D) governor cannot appoint a replacement if a senator leaves office before his term expires. Hmmm, I wonder why.
On a similar note, Dianne Feinstein needs to retire too.
This was a hard read…it brought back so many memories. Back in the late 60’s my then husband and I did a pinky-swear to be child-free given a long planetary/humanitary view we held. We kept our promise. Being acutely concerned about this for so many decades, but feeling powerless to effect change on my efforts alone (did them anyway), discussing this with others they often shut me down as being too depressing, or not the right moment, too scary, etc. Thing is, and I’ve long known this, until the “ruling class” (corporations/business interests/governments) step up BIG TIME, nothing will change. We are seeing the prelude to the big show that is unfolding and many (big exception to ostriches who still hide) are starting to wake up (um, “woke”??) to how this will affect THEM and their loved ones. Seems to me there will be, really, no place to hide from this. Humans, despite our incredible gifts, have descended like a swarm of locusts upon the earth to feast….not, I think, intending to ravage it…but will nonetheless.
"Professor Ian Lowe of Australia’s Griffith University told The Guardian that he recalled reading the 1985 report that identified the link between greenhouse gasses and climate change, and worked to draw public attention to it. “
The problem is how most of us process risk: actual v. perceived.
Unless and until it's a problem in our daily lives, most of us don't perceive these things to be an actual risk. Once we get forest fires kind of flood and oppressive heat all of a sudden. It's a problem period but it's not a crisis.
The crisis, if there is one, has to do with human inability to accurately perceive, analyze and mitigate risk period
While I agree with you Jim, I think there is something else here as well. Moving from the macro in our body politic---the powerfully moneyed influence of the fossil fuel industry, the GOP seeking votes by stoking ignorance rather than seeking knowledge, etc.,---is the fact that as a society we have never dealt with a comprehensive, immediately existential crisis like this before. The closest analogous period would have been the oh-so-small window of national contemplation of the true impact of nuclear war, during the Cuban Missile Crisis of the early '60s.
We simply cannot get our collective minds to click onto crisis NOW, ACTION DEMANDED mode. Whether individuals sense the climate crisis in their daily lives or not, the majority of Americans, across the political spectrum, have trouble crossing fully into the all hands on deck place where we clearly are. It necessitates too much sacrifice, too much jettisoning of our current way of life, our habits, inclinations, escapes, and of course, a realization that our endless tomorrows might not be.
Knowing the wolf could come to the door any moment is one thing, grasping that the wolf is already there is another.
The Republicans in Congress should have a junket to discuss climate change and show it is just a hoax. The perfect place is Death Valley. They could even do it night when it is cooler. No A/C.
Again, thank you, Heather. You write what every newspaper, tv news channel, and pundits should be reporting. Instead, they continue to harp on such things as Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s age and poll numbers, and the useless rants of Congressional Republicans. They don’t speak of how well our economy is doing under Joe, or his efforts to help all Americans, or to address climate change, gun control, and oh so much more. Joe is doing a miraculous job given the severe headwinds of MAGA politicians and the incompetent media.
Thank you for always reminding us of the important things happening in our country and world.
I so agree, Ginni! That last paragraph was such a bolt of energy and optimism. Whenever I feel like giving up on it all, Biden/Harris do something that restores my faith in humanity.
"Making the country’s real history easily available" - is a mission statement if ever there was one.
Plus, making US history reflect reality is much more interesting than the whitewashed variety.
Literally whitewashed!!
Literally.
When I open a window on microsoft edge it fills the screen with news links and they are predominantly right wing with most being fox. It's hard to solve problems when the information people are getting is a bunch of lies and misinformation. You'd think there is no more important issue than Hunter Biden's taxes.
Or his laptop…. I think about all this brouhaha surrounding him and wonder does everybody who doesn’t pay their taxes for two years go to jail—oh, they will certainly get dinged a hefty financial penalty, but jail? I think not. Now add to that the issue of him lying when buying a gun—mind you, he admitted being addicted at the time—and, what, bought the gun under false pretenses. [I have never purchased a gun so have no idea what you have to “sign/agree to”.I wonder if everyone who purchased a gun is absolutely not addicted to something (drugs, alcohol, etc.)—somehow I doubt it. Did he commit any crimes with said gun? No. I’m all for him taking responsibility and being held accountable for his actions, but IMHO he should not be held to a standard others are not. And somehow this is his dad’s doing/fault…um, no.
I so agree with you ..they have put him through the ringer..only because he is the son of the President ..how many people have done far more and were done with restitution in a couple of years
Funny how no one is reporting anything about Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka anymore.
I think that's a blessing, actually. It's just distraction and clickbait.
MAGA-world is trying to exercise contro over Biden by threatening his family. What other organizations engage in this kind of behavior?
Lesly Harder, how about TheTrump Organization for one? 🙊🙁
The MAFIA, The PURPLE GANG ! ,,,, ETC, oh Yeah ! ,, MAGATS! Thanks, John !
Did they do this to trump's kids? I don't remember. I know Ivanka was running around scoffing up with privilege all of those trademarks. Wasn't trump suppose to be curtailing business with China?
I agree. I was an auditor for 26 1/2 years. You would be surprised at the people that didn't pay their taxes. It was amazing. Most didn't even get their hands slapped let alone have their face on prime time news. What about tfg and his family? The Democrats need to start investigation them. They say anything to bash, Joe! There are few taxpayers with businesses that are honest. I say if everyone paid their fair share we would have much lower taxes!
Maybe this is why the republicans don't want the extra money spent on investigating the large tax returns. I am a small fish and have gotten audited 2x.
Learn how to open a different browser than Microsoft edge, which pushes corporate news and hype unnecessarily. Microsoft may have the monopoly on operating systems, but as consumers we can control how we get information.
I use different browsers for different purposes.
Microsoft Edge, is SITTING ON the Wrong "EDGE, of Information" ( The LIE Edge !!} LORD have MERCY ! Thanks ! William !
I may be looking at something different, but my screen is about Ukraine, positive Biden things, and all of the terrible things about trump ( which is in the majority) trump articles are like dead animals in the road. You don't want to look, but you are curious as to which animal it was.
Ginni Simpson said it well. But beyond that, Professor, you really should take a few days off now and then to support your other important work and, god forbid, recharge your batteries....I can't imagine anyone here would walk away. It's safe to say none of want to see you burn yourself out. Please, take care of yourself.
Yes Lemoine, I passionately agree. HCR may indeed be due for a long vacation. It’s NOT my business, but I’ve learned that in our society ‘being busy’ is deeply admired and can become a reflex particularly for someone who’s very talented as well as inspired.
As a young ambitious dancer I was told ‘to take the summer off’ so my body could absorb what my brain had supposedly learned that year. I didn’t, and I eventually burned out.
Now I still ‘freak out’ somewhat if I’m not actively writing poetry.
People who mean well reflexively ask not only ‘how are you’ but just as often ‘What’s new?’ or ‘What are you doing?
Sam- Not many people give voice to this irksome habit. So true!
People like Professor Richardson are like our president. The fire within keeps going and they stay warm. (In the current “climate” that may look like a curse, but for some thousands of years it has been a blessing.)
Ginni, you’re so correct! The MAGA crowd is fiddling while Rome (and Greece) burns, much as they protested against Covid vaccinations when they became available. Ignoring the truth about Covid vaccinations cost lives. While the same percentage of Democrats as Republicans died from Covid before vaccinations became available, that was not the case after vaccinations were readily available.
Now they are adopting the same mindset regarding climate change. Acting like an ostrich with its head in the sand will not stop the heat, the floods, the wildfires, the hurricanes or the rising sea levels.
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/25/1189939229/covid-deaths-democrats-republicans-gap-study
The greeds that finance Rs think that their money will save them. It is clear that there is nowhere on the planet that is safe from the effects of climate change. Here in Oregon the Rs regularly walk out of the legislature to deny a quorum, so that that the things that need to be done either don't get done or are watered down. This recent session it was abortion, trans care, and guns. Last time it was climate initiatives and we were treated to log truck drivers and other vehicles polluting Salem and clogging the streets. Much of this effort is financed by out of state resources. We also have several fires going in Oregon and it looks like nearly every one of them were human caused. Last night we have some jerk setting off fireworks (again) while it is bone dry. I am glad to see lots of people with brown grass which means that they are not watering their lawns in contrast to those in the neighborhood who have private wells and are draining the water in the area underground. And of course, the wing nut across the street runs all sorts of engines when it is very hot. I was thinking last night about growing food and how difficult that is becoming. And on the news last night was a story about traveling and buying travel insurance which you can't buy, of course, once the fires start.
The only thing the current Republicans care about is sabotaging government so they can keep short term profits rolling in. The world economy is based on constant economic growth. Heating the planet, exploiting workers, using up all of the resources, migration, suffering, and death are just collateral damage.
Sad but true.
What wise man said, "Why bother with air pollution. The Chinese air is all blowing this direction anyway."
What is your source about the difficulty in growing food so everyone can read it and those who can start vegetable gardens?
Last night, I think it was, NBC has a story about corn in the midwest. The couple had a little boy who stood taller than the corn and by this time, you shouldn't be able to see them. Then there is the problem in Georgia with peaches. Here in Oregon there is no fishing right now for certain salmon. It seems to be feast or famine. Either too much water or not enough. Also there was another TV news story about West Africa and terrorism. Part of the problem is the encroaching desert where there was once farmland. So, I can't give you a single source although I am sure there are some. I have given some thought to gardening and I have done it for almost 50 years. One year we could only water on alternate days although the next door neighbor was watering every day with his private well. We are lucky enough to have about a half acre, but as I was once castigated for talking about my garden because everyone can't have one, as if I didn't know that, I am not always willing to talk about it. But for years, I started my winter coles in July. And the last few years i have had to wait because it was too hot. Today, since we are having cooler weather for the week, I think I can get them started. We support small local farmers as well. One of them has an organic designation and she is not happy because big ag has ruined that. And it's expensive....inspector costs 275 an hour plus there are fees. Not all the fires around are in forests either. We have had wheat crops burn up. And so it goes.
Thank you for your “on the ground” report. May your garden grow!
We fortunately had a good snow pack this year, so plenty of water. I just put up the new marionberry canes after pruning out the old canes this week. I am in for a water break because it is alway humid in the am. Next I have to prop up some peppers and eggplants and do some harvesting. Finally have some ripening tomatoes. Our neighbors put in a big pile of cow manure a few years ago and their garden still produces big amounts. We both give away excess. I give my LMT veggies and fruit and he gives us fish....this week salmon (silvers which you can keep) and rock fish. He and his fishing partner would like to go tuna fishing, but the wind is still from the north....maybe this weekend. He cans a lot of tuna and gives that away too. We are lucky at this point to live in PNW.
Here in western NY state we have farms and orchards that produce mega tons of fruits and vegetables, as well as feed corn, winter wheat, etc.
I grow vegetables on my apartment balcony. We've had rain but I still have to keep the plants hydrated. It's really an enjoyable thing and I wish more people would stop fussing over their lawns and grow food instead. The grocery store where I shop features local family-farmed produce. I just wish the prices were lower.
Price is a problem, but organic and local is often more labor intensive. I think it is a travesty that people have to pay more for local and/or organically grown food. It is also a travesty that there are food deserts and now pharmacy deserts. I am not a fan of green laws either.....too much water and often too many chemicals. We had a guy in the neighborhood that I called Mr. Chemical because I smelled it every time I was on my walk. He sold and now that lawn is full of weeds. Mr. Jerk R across the street has a postage stamp lawn, green of course , which he mows about three times a week. He has finally gotten a battery powered riding lawn mower which isn't as awful as the gas powered one was. He does have solar, so there's that.
Don't try to get it in FL. 3 or 4 insurance companies have pulled out. Not because of fires, but wind and rain.
Not sure what you can't get in Florida. I know about the insurance problem. Is there a problem in the sunshine state getting solar?
I often think that the MAGA crowd, being largely made up of white supremacist KKKristian nationalists, as it is, is cheering on the horrendous climate changes that we're seeing. I think they see it as "helping" to bring on "the Rapture" that so many of them believe is coming to save them and destroy everyone they don't like. (As if an all-powerful deity would even NEED their help!!)
Anyway, more Deep Thoughts for a Thursday morning. :D
It’s certainly true of the MAGA evangelicals, who start from the position that God ordains everything anyway- so nobody’s to blame for these disasters.
My seemingly sane neighbor informed me that “God will take care of climate change.” I managed to keep a straight face as he is (a good) president of the building condo board.
Does he allow the condo to make changes or does he leave that up to God also?
He is an excellent president. The board keeps the building well keeping assessment raises small and good maintenance. He is an accountant with his own business.
And Canada, and Indonesia, and Spain, and Brazil, and ... the burning is global, or will be this year.
The 25 million acres burned in Canada this year (so far!) is more acreage than the entire state of California. I don't think the sand is where those ostrich heads are.
The sphincter, by design, is a one-way valve. Apparently MAGA has serendipitously stumbled upon the back door to entropy.
Ah! The riddle of the sphincter. What's ignorant in the morning, stupid at noon, and moronic forever?
OMG! A laugh in the midst of tears! THANK YOU, Sander!
Well done! You must have been reading Keith Wheelock.
Talking to Kenneth Burke years sgo. He turned down an honorary degree from Princeton saying "I'm no longer viable. It's the riddle of the sphincter."
Actually, CA is almost 4 times larger with over 99 million acres.
As is the flooding and heat domes….and weird excessive snow events/storms. It is said that if the major ocean currents are disrupted, as they may be as a result of ocean water absorbing so much heat, that temps in Northern Europe could be colder and dryer in the future. Learning about the thermodynamics of the oceans is fascinating and predictions are scary.
Wildlife is seeing enormous die-offs and threatened extinctions because of rising temps. Rising sea levels are destroying habitat. There have been heartbreaking die-offs of polar bears, birds, manatees, seals and narwhals. Yet the US itself still wants to drill, baby, drill. There are floating islands of discarded plastic as big as 3 miles wide in the oceans, and we have microplastics in our blood. We are killing the planet and ourselves.
Sat on a boat in France in 2005 looking up ocean currents with climate change (had a front row seat to the changes for 10 years). No surprises in your report.
I was in Iceland several years ago, and they showed me the melting glaciers and how it affected the topology of the land. And that was before all of these heat.
Yes, how is it that in the face of mounting financial, climate, and bigoted evidence there is this collective head in the sand? This newsletter pretty much sums up the stupidity side of humanity....
Oh i remember that! Shake your head.
And the House seems set on destroying any climate change practices.
In regards to covid ( I have had all my shots and was just tired), they ran a story about a major anti-vax activist mother of 4 children. No mask for her. She died of covid (Karma) and her family was running a go-fund-me for burial services. People don't realize covid is still out there. I caught mine about 4 weeks ago.
We saw that as it happened.
It's all about greed. They have a mindset that normal people don't.
Ginni, this is EXACTLY what I want to say. This is what MSNBC, CNN and others need to be covering. Someone, some team member must be reading Heather or should be. They need to feed the news anchor this narrative.
Or, we can just ignore MSNBC and CNN. Cable news is corrupted by the business model, best to just ignore them.
MSNBC covers what the sponsors allow it to cover, but fortunately the ex-judges, attorneys, and generals they bring on are mostly excellent. Their coverage of the January 6th hearings and aftermath has been as complete as we could wish for.
I have friends who are addicted to MSNBC. They have to be home every afternoon for Nicole Wallace and the rest of the line-up. And they end up so angry, every day. I think that, overall, MSNBC is as bad as CNN and Fox, because they have to follow the business model of cable news. They sensationalize and gin up outrage because they have to fill a 7x24 schedule, and keep viewers locked in. And they’re just preaching to (and outraging) the choir (no different than Fox News, it’s just a different choir). The nightly PBS Newshour provides more thorough, objective coverage of the daily news in an hour than MSNBC or CNN does in 24 hours. When it comes to news quality, less is more.
I watch a little of all (very little of Fox, just enough to know what they're saying). Fox: mostly lies and outrage; MSNBC: mostly truth and outrage; CNN: he said, she said, blah, blah, blah. And that's why I mostly watch MSNBC.
Ditto. In the hospital some years ago with only CNN. Found it bland. It is improved, but still a bit bland. I prefer the biting intelligence in these perilous times. MSNBC got me through the pandemic. I still find them the best sources of news and opinion. And where else do you get corrections when somebody got it wrong?
Agree about PBS NewsHour. It is excellent journalism. Have watched since its beginning and think that if it had more viewers the country would be less divided. I will say I'm not comfortable with new co-anchor Amna Nawaz's emotional delivery style; it lacks the professionalism of Robin MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, Judy Woodruff, and Gwen Ifill, but Geoff Bennett is an ultimate professional. And perhaps Amna will attract those who prefer a more commercial news style.
I do.
Penny: I agree with you.
Yes, Ginni, we dither while the world goes down the drain!
What distresses me most of all is the flagrant and arrogant disregard the Climate Crisis Deniers have for ALL life on this fragile planet. Humans will probably become extinct eventually - as most life forms eventually have.
The elimination of humans may be a gift to the Earth. But along the way we will destroy gazillions of varieties of plants and animals with our selfishness. It is beyond evil. It is diabolical.
My opinion (just that) is that many of the Climate Deniers are also the same people who claim to value all life to the extent that they are also anti-abortionists who claim that abortions kill babies. They also still want their big gas guzzling cars and pesticides so they can plant more corn, etc....I know, this is just my opinion.
Colette, they also want all the guns and no responsibility for the outcome of the mass shootings that plague our nation. That is NOT "pro-life".
OFF TOPIC to Authors & Readers: No Troll Today ... so far. Thank you Substack 'Admins'👍 & Content Moderation Department folks.👍
He doesn't show up every day. But I'm surprised he didn't today because he loves trashing Hunter Biden.
So true Ally House. I would also add that they just look the other way when a mass shooting occurs over and over again. Also, anti-abortionists are only "pro-birth" after that, nothing. What a bunch of hypocrites.
ALLY, THEY, are Just Itchin: to " WARM UP" the barrels of Every WEAPON, in Ownership ! This is Their REAL !, PRO LIFE !! LORD !, HAVE MERCY !
Sadly, I think you are quite accurate. What keeps me going is the knowledge that the majority of the generation arriving at voting age now are rejecting such primitive ignorance.
I feel sad for the younger generation. The connection between greenhouse gases and climate change was identified ALMOST 40 YEARS ago. The actions taken to address climate change since then are a mere drop in the bucket relative to the comprehensive effort that is needed.
It still drives me nuts that Jimmy Carter had solar panels put on the White House back in the late 70s when this stuff really began rearing its head, only to have Ronald Reagan have them removed when his administration came in!!
To think how close we were to actually being responsible fellow creatures of the earth!! Auugggh!!!
Ellen, longer than 40 years ago, but that’s when more of us became aware of what the few had been saying. They were just starting to say it louder….and we (most) still did not listen. Even now when it’s being SHOUTED in all caps!
They only care about human fetuses. Once humans are actually born and are people, they no longer care. Nothing pro life about any of them. Already they are putting women at risk because medical people are afraid to treat certain problems.
Your opinion, yes, but I think you’re right. Thanks for your post.
Colette- Agree. While thinking, aware people connect the factual dots the Magats eat up every conspiracy theory that is fed to them.
What distresses me most is the relative bargain the oil industry lobby got paying off politicians in DC. With untold billions in profits last year alone, what they’ve payed out over the past decade alone is pocket change.
Biden if he can should impose an excess profit tax on the oil giants.
He cannot impose new taxes. Only Congress can do that, so...
I read (somewhere) that oil subsidies cost us ten times as much as we spend on education. Obscene.
Derek, I remember during Covid, after Biden became president and gasoline prices were very high for several reasons, including record profits for the industry, an older gent (lol..than me & I’m a senior!) at the pump was grousing about the gas prices being the fault of Biden. I bit my tongue & didn’t comment because I knew what the root cause was.
This has been my thought for a very long time. I do believe that the planet would be better off without us and that we will destroy lots of other life as we destroy ourselves.
The planet will go on just fine (or better) without us.
Agree.
Michele, I refer you to Sara Teasdale's wonderful poem, "There Will Come Soft Rains". One particular line, "And not one will care, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perish utterly..." is forever in my mind, both sad and also very comforting. That is, of course, until I think it through and realize that we'll probably take the birds and trees with us in destruction.
Thanks for the heads up. I can remember liking Sara Teasdale when I was in high school....a long, long time ago. Yes, for a long time I have not cared that humans survive, but feel very sad that we will ruin a lot of flora and fauna as well....are ruining. On the good side, I haven't seen them, but my spouse has spotted blue birds in the neighborhood.
I am 100% with you on this, Bill. Every day, I think of the nonhuman lives, as well as humans, who are being driven to extinction because of us! Greed is a terrible thing!
Agree. Regarding the climate crisis, I think it's very important for communication to focus on what CAN be done, and that every small tenth of a degree that we can keep the global temperatures down, matters for the short and long term. Switching to heat pumps for home heating and cooling, as just one example, is highly incentivized by Biden in the Inflation Reduction Act. Now we need massive - yes massive - rollout and adoption. We got rid of our older air conditioner and replaced it with a heat pump a few months ago. It works amazingly and our utility bill is about 30% less per month. Since the utilities STILL use coal in the US, this is a tremendous opportunity, among so many others. Installing heat pumps globally is important as well. It isn't the only solution required for the climate crisis, but it is certainly part of the solution.
We are fortunate as we have solar panels which in the summer provide more than enough power to run our heat pump. We recently had a new one installed and it works very well, both in summer and winter. Right now our electric bill is zero, but it will rise in the winter time without the constant sun. What does cost us is water, because unlike several of our neighbors, we do not steal underground water and have to pay the city. They are doing sewer and street work out front and my spouse reports that we haven't gotten a water bill for a while for some reason. Could be a shock when we finally get one. as we have had about two drops of rain for the last two months or so and nothing on the horizon except that it will not be as hot as it could be.
But Ginni...Heather is summarizing what's in the news (see her sources). Beautifully I will add. And I'll bet this is just a handful of sources she consumes daily too.
I think what people like you and me want is a drumbeat of the good Biden news, the seriousness of climate change, etc. That is what isn't happening. I don't know how we change that.
Ginni - your substack took over HCR - looking for a subscriber! - better check your settings!
I’m not sure what you mean. What settings?
Thank you both Heather and Ginni.
Truth must win. Otherwise we are just “HOT AIR”.... oh oh
Amen! I'm so encouraged to hear that President Biden is making this commitment to accurate historical accounts. I'm so grateful that you, Dr. Richardson, continue to examine current events in the context of historical patterns. Please take some time off to recharge; maybe you could rerun some past Letters that focus on key historical events and people. And the pictures are always a boost to the spirit. We'll be here when you get back.
And everyone seems to be unaware that if we don't address the Climate Crisis NOW with strength, solidarity and commitment, none of those other silly political issues will matter. We'll all be too busy fighting the fires in our back yards. It's outrageuos and terrifying. Thank you, Heather.
If we were serious about reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, we would plant lots and lots of trees and do a crash program to develop nuclear fusion power:
http://earthwarning.org/index.php/what-should-we-do/
Ginni- yes, yes, yes.
Ginni, you paint with too broad a brush. Yes, there are shallow, click-bait driven media focusing on “such things as Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s age and poll numbers, and the useless rants of Congressional Republicans”. But there are many others that “speak of how well our economy is doing under Joe, or his efforts to help all Americans, or to address climate change, gun control, and oh so much more”. We don’t want to become cynical and reject all media.
I was commenting on the preponderance of what my online news and tv report. I’m speaking to what they repeatedly emphasize.
Perhaps you should pick different news and tv sources. There are many, high quality news media. Why waste time on the ones you say are shallow and insipid?
Believe me, I have. I wrote about the preponderance of skewed news most Americans view.
It has always been a sad truth. here in America at least, that good news does not sell newspapers. I think reading about other peoples trials and tribulations makes some feel lucky, or maybe even superior, to all those famous people out there.
I've been keenly interested in climate change for two decades and have read a lot on the subject. Among the hundreds if not thousands of models, those predicting dire outcomes have proved the most accurate. Yet as a nation we are mostly blind to the scope of what's happening at a rapidly accelerating rate. And far worse is yet to come, barring overwhelming corrective action or scientific breakthroughs to reduce greenhouse gases.
The Republicans are now indirectly advocating death and suffering on a massive scale. This is not hyperbole. Let's hope the Democrats become much more bold in confronting what increasingly looks to be an existential threat.
For those who find it hard to comprehend 'unthinkable' disasters, remember what it was like going through Covid with an Orange Clown driving a car full of clowns advocating bleach, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin and lies that Covid is just a cold or another flu. Proof: People over age 50yo had an increased death rate of 52% if they lived in a county that went for Trump. People over age 50yo in Biden counties had less a chance of death than kids under 25yo in Trump won counties. https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-02-03/counties-that-voted-for-trump-have-higher-covid-death-rates
How about the orange baboon's idea of dropping a nuclear bomb into a hurricane?? That was as insane as i have heard from that dopey idiot. The ineptitude of the Fascist Rethug party is astounding.
And now, a nobody, a citizen like the rest of us is advocating the impeachment of the president over his sons business dealings or something. I'd tell him (DJT) to go pound sand. He has no authority. Get lost. Back to your jail cell.
The amazing thing is that they are not looking at Trump’s children. Some of them have walked away with billions of dollars and did way worse things than Hunter Biden. The world has gone mad.
I know, right? Seems like the whole family had their toes dipped in some deal or other (including TFG), not to mention some with White House “jobs/duties”. I think the current admin staying out of it (not interfering) & letting the Justice Dept deal with the most crucial malfeasance is important. Maybe some crack investigative journalists will ferret out the truth one day and lay it out for all to see, not that it will make any difference to the true believers.
Yes, the world has gone mad, more especially here in the United States. And TUMP's snotty children have did way worse things that Hunter Biden. But i suppose it's ok because they are TUMP's children. I despise all of them, and all Fascist Rethugs. I only wish we could make them all disappear without a trace. The world would be much better off without these criminals.
I totally agree with you. I have been thinking all of the time, what has Hunter Biden have to with all this??? Him and Joe Biden are individual human beings, and both of them are adults.
Joe cannot control of the actions of his adult son, just like i can't control the actions of my 3 grown sons. Just look at the dope fiend son of Donald TUMP, (Don Jr.)and the crimes he has committed.. Absolutely nothing is ever said about the crooked dealings of that skid row bum. And i agree what you said at the end of your comment, Back to you jail cell under a jail. That is exactly where this criminal belongs with the rest of the rattlesnakes.
And the deliberate ignorance lives on
I’d go one step further, Michael: the Republicans are _directly_ advocating the destruction of Earth’s biosphere and the death of all life forms, including all humans.
That is the highest of crimes. We all live here.
It sure is the highest of all crimes, and it's time these people are held accountable for it.
First they have to be stopped.
I had doubts about using "indirectly." But I also don't think they're "directly advocating." The most accurate characterization is that their actions and inactions contribute to the destruction...
...at the least. But if you're planning on putting an end to the EPA, or plan to sell national parks to the highest bidder in the shale gas industry, all the while claiming to "drain the swamp" and "own the libs", you're damn well aiming to destroy nature directly in my opinion. It definitely is way beyond being naive...
At least the repugnants can say " we beat those worthless , do nothing libs " while the earth burns around them !!
Sure looks like that, doesn't it? Jumping around and screaming victoriously "ha ha we owned the libs!" while going up in flames...
I would venture to say that the Republican Party had either retrieve some of its good history and foundation somehow or forever be lumped with the fascists.
Our host Mother Nature is pissed. A raging fever has begun and the dinosaur GOP will ensure this virus civilization of greed will be cleared from her system. Are we really listening? Relying on government is not enough, each choice each human makes every day matters. My own carbon footprint gets smaller and smaller for going “plant based”, choosing muscle powered sports, vacationing locally, de- fossiling my home, etc. What can you do— today?
I remember seeing a single panel comic a few years ago that had the earth with a bandage on and a thermometer in its mouth. A doctor was saying "It looks like you have a bad case of humans. When your fever breaks, you'll be fine; they'll be gone."
"Relying on government is not enough, each choice each human makes every day matters."
Amen to that, sir! I've been so dismayed to see writings talking about how individuals are not to blame - go ahead and take that plane trip, buy that new boat, pick up truck!- that it's corporations who have wreaked this havoc on the planet. While there is some truth to that, I've always believed it is also our individual priorities and choices that add up to a cumulative and powerful effect. I took my first plane trip across the country (first time in my 61 years to the opposite coast!) to visit dear friends who had moved there, and was expressing my very mixed feelings about it to my daughter. She tried so hard to alleviate my guilt by arguing that my individual trip didn't matter because it was the greedy corporatations who fueled (pun intended) so much air travel, not me. But when I look around the airport and the skies and see planes full of tourists like myself.............how can that not matter?
Go Vegan! Recent study on the vegan diet and climate. https://e360.yale.edu/digest/vegan-diet-climate-meat-vegetarian-pescatarian#:~:text=The%20analysis%20found%20that%20plant,of%20a%20deck%20of%20cards.
My favorite M.D. : www.nutritionfacts.org
Me too!!!
That looks amazing. And sad that as an RN of 28 years, I've never heard of this doc or site before, and I LOOK for stuff like this! Thank you.
Share it. As a legit healthcare worker you’ll find this site credible.
Great resource and public service.
You're right. All of us are "to blame", if you wish to call it that. At least it's true that all of us, ALL of us, had a part in it. You, me, everybody. Even if you're vegan and use no fossil-fuel powered transport, the houses we all live in are built of materials that sent a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere during their production (unless all of your wooden planks were chopped and sawed by hand...). Vegan food also costs al lot of water and energy to produce and transport (unless you grew it in your own garden). And in the very end, every breath you exhale releases CO2 in the atmosphere... So there's no stopping it completely.
Of course, that doesn't mean you should go buy a huge-ass pick-up truck and slap a "f*ck you Greta!" sticker on the bumper, or disband the EPA and sell out all national parks... That is quite the other end of the spectrum and very much uncalled for.
It's the opiate--blame someone or something else so we ourselves do not have to change. Scream "It's not fair that now that I can afford what you have, I can't have it." And so on.
Yes, I recycle, reduce, drive as little as possible, etc., etc., etc. But we ALSO have to rely on government to restrict or ban things such as private planes, and coal plants, and ALL the other things that large companies are doing, some of which is subsidized (!) by the same government that MUST TAKE ACTION to restrict or ban. The majority of the deadly pollution is NOT the consequence of me, or you, ordering a package from Amazon, or having our lights on, it's the large companies' activities, and ONLY government can effectively rein them in. IF WE FORCE GOVERNMENT TO DO SO - this is where individual action is effective.
Yes! Agree!
Yes re: your comment about Republicans advocating death and suffering on a massive scale. They showed us this ‘big time’ with the political response to the public health disaster known as COVID…
Is that "big time" or 'Bigly"?
Thanks for the chuckle, dark as it is.
Michael,
Yes, we are truly the frog in an ever heating environment with nowhere to jump to safety and also ignoring the rising temperatures.
We know how the frog ends up. So, optimism is not warranted. Also, we have built our very survival upon the use of fossil fuels, so, HOW to walk away from them AND support the massive human population we have is not at all clear.
My own hypothesis is: Humans will continue to be frogs in the ever warming climate until it collapses and then, the human population will shrink dramatically or disappear.
Then, what greenery is left will slowly take back over, and over the next 500 million years or so convert the CO2 in the sky back into CO2 in the ground, MAYBE bringing the climate back into the range of mammals again. Who knows.
But, a mass extinction event for humans is, to be honest, the most probable outcome here. I do hope it is not a mass extinction event for the greenery too. IF that occurs, well, earth will rotate like most other planets in the universe.
A dead planet.
My thoughts exactly, Mike. I am afraid that putting the brakes on warming to the degree that has any chance at all of maintaining human habitability is unlikely if not impossible.
Indeed. And the billionaires creating their own space vehicles--when they colonize another planet, who do you think will be allowed to emigrate?
It doesn’t have to be. you will probably laugh at me and say it’s a conspiracy theory, but what happened in Congress yesterday regarding UAPs or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UFOs) can be the start of something amazing. They have reversed engineered one of those crafts and it doesn’t depend on any fuel that we know of today. It could mean the end of the need for gas, oil, and electricity. Think about what that would eventually mean. I can’t tell you who that is because I don’t know, but they’re very rich and their money comes from the fuels that we use today.”They don’t want this info spread. If anyone is interested, check out, Dr. Steven Greer’s YouTube videos. He is an amazing man.
"In case we have forgotten..."
In my world, working for NOAA at that time, it was this crackpot we shook our heads at thinking he was an ignorant man and/but an outlier.
https://youtu.be/3E0a_60PMR8
Fast forward...now I'm really shaking my head.
I posted here sometime back about an encounter I had at my local small market which reminded me so much of that Congress critter’s response. There had been unusual snowfall for my region, not unheard of, but rare so close to the coast (indeed snowing at the beach). Chatting about the weather as I checked out, the bagger quipped that the snow proved global warming was a hoax. I tried to explain about the difference between climate & weather & how the warming Arctic was playing havoc with the jet stream, thus unusual weather patterns. Nope, she was having none of it.
Ugh! It's frustrating.
I can only imagine.
'Tapping into the power of young people for climate action'
'There are 1.2 billion young people and their collective input will have an impact both now and in the future. Fortunately, there is good news.'
'Young people played an important role in the Climate Promise. While young people were largely ignored in earlier Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) now 75 percent of Climate Promise countries prioritize youth in developing their NDCs, primarily through consultations, raising awareness and advocacy campaigns.'
'The cost of solar and wind power and electric vehicles have come down dramatically. Between 2010 to 2019, solar energy costs decreased 85 percent, wind energy by 55 percent, and lithium-ion batteries by 85 percent.'
'And in the last decade, climate finance has significantly increased, reaching US$632 billion.'
'The solidarity, mutual respect, and understanding between the young people of the global north and south on climate action, as well as their advocacy for marginalized groups whose voices are not heard is admirable. This emphasizes the important role that solidarity plays.'
'Young people have been ignored in climate decisions for far too long and can no longer be seen as merely means to an end. It is their present and their future that’s at stake. Their concerns and their solutions must be at the heart of all decision-making.'
'Empowering young people presents a historic, transformational, and collective opportunity to advance an inclusive green recovery, accelerate progress on the SDGs and to lay the foundation for a peaceful and sustainable future.' (UN Development Programme)
Michael, much appreciation for your clarion call on behalf of life on earth; it is of long-standing.
My readings indicate that too many Republicans have been responsible in various ways for the deaths and suffering due to the Climate Crisis, and there are Democrats among them.
Solidarity around the world and folks of all ages may we, the vast majority of us, be stronger in doing what is necessary to stop the lethal storms of greed, self-interest, and indifference, which are falling upon us.
Thanks. As I've responded to a few others here, I questioned myself about using "indirectly." They're not advocating death and harm but are definitely contributing to it by their actions or inactions. And yes, some Democrats too.
Dear Michael, strong accusations need to be examined at the deepest level, so your hesitation makes sense. I do think some people, such a Trump, his sons, Cruz, the Koch brothers, Kevin McCarthy, Joe Manchin, Steve Scalise...and, perhaps, a number of leaders of Saudi Aramco, China Petroleum & Chemical, PetroChina , Exxon Mobil, Shell …have contributed to the Climate Crisis and bear responsibility for blocking efforts to address it.
Agreed, 100+ degrees percent
"Indirectly"?
Other posters have also asked this question. It's a good one. After I posted, I was second-guessing using "indirectly." I used it because Republicans aren't directly advocating killing and harming people by not supporting steps to reduce greenhouse gases. But there is no doubt their actions or inactions contribute to deaths and harm.
We have hit the climate tipping point visible on both the global and intimately local scale. I have lived in my home for 45+ years and enjoyed the presence of a beautiful brook that drew wildlife and provided a comforting susurration to my outdoor time. The brook now floods with every thunderstorm, its banks scoured and widened, its gentle curves eroded, the huge oaks on its banks leaning and dying, tangles of denuded roots visible. Its whispering has been silenced as its flow has morphed into stagnant puddles between storms. Dead ash trees, killed by invading borers, have naked branches raised in supplication. The herd of deer are gone, ravaged by a gnat-born disease. There are no butterflies and only a pathetic few lightning bugs left, no longer making summer nights magical. Rampant wisteria are choking out much of the native species.
The earth, my earth, is no longer recognizable except in dreams.
I share your pain - and I'm scared what kind of Earth 'our' kids will inherit...
Pay attention to the "grid" as firestorms continue...
That is my biggest fear, my grand and great grand kids. What kind of world are we leaving them. It is so sad.
I am 70 years old and remember when , on long summer drives, at a gas station stop, you needed to scrub off the dead insects that struck your windshield. That does not happen in my part of the country( NJ ) anymore. I also recall that in grammar school we learned about the greenhouse effect and how it might cause the planet to grow warmer. Back then, they did not know if the warming would occur in decades or hundreds of years in the future. We now have the answer, humans have brought significant changes already and mostly all we get is talk and no action, around the globe.
"Lament" is too mild a word.
Georgia, my scalp just tingled, reading your incredible, heart rending, description. I feel hopeless suddenly....
The only way to survive is not to hope. Hope makes it unbearable. We just have to DO, what we can, without fighting each other (so grotesque). R Kipling said, "You take a large hoe, and a shovel also, and dig till you gently perspire".
Heather, you deserve a few days off. Your health is of utmost importance and concern. You have a lot of irons in the fire. Stay healthy. We need you, desperately!!!
Now, down to climate change and the Trumpublicans effort to destroy it. If you recall through history, most Republicans elected as president were always against doing anything to curve Climate Change.
Also, farmers always get the blame for everything. Climate change is no different. Well, if I may, I want to set the record straight. Farmers/ranchers across this country have been fighting Climate Change for decades. They’ve adopted the use of biogas generators that actually take animal waste and convert it to electricity. This procedure and electric generators are now used an cattle ranches, hog farms, poultry farms, across the country. Some are producing enough electricity to supply small towns.
One thing us for sure. If we, the people of this world and this country, don’t change our way of living, we will be extinct and we won’t have to worry about east kind of world our future generations will inherit. We are killing Earth each and every day.
It’s been proven through science the damage being fine by using fossil fuels. It’s been proven through science the damage being done by destroying our forest, eliminating hood farmland and replacing it with concrete slabs, buildings.
One Governor who’s been doing this is Governor Ron DeStupid. You know, the idiot running for president. The one that just had to let over 80 campaign staffers go because of financial problems. He has taken farmers out of the equation in Florida. As Governor, he had turned more farmland into concrete than any other Governor before him. I dare say he’s turned more farmland, forest land, in Florida into concrete buildings than any other Governor in the country. DeStupid has done his fair share in destroying the Climate, and he’s the Governor of a state that stands to lose the most! Right now, I’m Florida, the water temperature on the coastline is above 100 degrees! That’s at hot tub temperatures. That’s so hot, it will destroy the barrier reef, and the marine life that live there. That’s important to the ecosystem of the ocean and planet. Not to mention the fact hat we are approaching the heart of the hurricane season in a month. Hot water fuels a hurricane. It allowed we the storms to intensify, becoming more dangerous , and deadly.
Folks, I’m picking on Florida because I was born, and raised, in Florida. I was raised on a farm. I lived, and worked, on my dads farm in my younger years until I left and went into my law enforcement and firefighting career. And it makes me sick to my stomach to see how the people in that one state have allowed one man to destroy the number one enterprise of the state. The number two enterprise of the country in relation to the other 49 states. That’s farming. Food production. Citrus, vegetables, food to feed the people of his own state, nation, and the world. Yes, Florida used to be number 1 in citrus, number two in overall food production (behind California).
Florida used to be number 1 in Climate issues. Now, it’s so far then the list it isn’t funny. If the people don’t care that’s running the state, how will the people care that live in the state? That question goes for every state.
Dan, I can hear Joni singing “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot”……it is tragic to witness it.
Anne-Louise, as an ardent gardener, I love your Kipling quote. It is unbearable. Hope and hopelessness are both unbearable. “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” springs to mind. Take care.
Hope can sustain effort and the effort sustain hope. Wishing that things would get better while making them worse is just a delusion.
On a wall inside the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (aka the Lynching Memorial) in Montgomery, Alabama, is this:
"Hopelessness is the enemy of justice."
Keeping hope alive, as Jesse Jackson used to say, isn't easy but it is necessary.
I recall that Jessie Jackson said something like "you don't drown until you stop swimming".
Exactly. Sometimes it has to be a scowling, teeth-gritted, determined and pushy hope, but it has to be there.
Unlike Kipling's musing about toiling to avoid a camel's hump from laziness, his verse edited for the 21st Century humanity struggle to survive would be better, "You take a large hoe, and a shovel also, and dig till you gently expire"
Aha, Dylan Thomas would like that! But you don't take a poet at face value, and the cameelious hump isn't necessarily the product of laziness... :)
Hopeless and powerless when the ocean across the street rages is how we feel in my somewhat Republican neighborhood. They don’t get the correlation between devastating floods and policy.
That was beautiful Georgia. Elegant. And thank you for the new word “susurration”. Whispering sound, a murmur. Perfect.
William, I learned the word “susurration” many years ago from a poem (W. Plomer) about one of my favorite plants:
I love, bamboo, your fidgets
And sudden sighs, bamboo,
Awake alone I listen
To secret susurration
Like paper scraping stone,
Stroking the inner surface
Of this old heart, bamboo.
Barbara, what's the title of this poem? I've tried searching for it but keep coming up with irrelevant sites.
Ruth, I too could not find the poem w/ Plomer’s attribution, but DID find this site that taught me more than I ever thought to know about William Plomer…actually had never given him a thought aside from noting him as the author of the poem so many years ago—I even tried to find that exact bamboo book that I’d found the poem in, but my memory is hazy…think I know, but is out of print and very pricey now!. Reading about his time & interest in Japan make sense given the poem’s subject. Perhaps it is considered one of his lesser works (what?!). Sounds like a very interesting fellow: https://grahamthomasauthor.wordpress.com/2022/05/12/william-plomer-and-japan/ This does not answer your question at all, but gives you a new landscape to discover!
Ruth, sorry I don’t know. This was an intro poem to a coffee table type book on bamboo that I had decades ago—loved that book, but gifted it to someone I cared about, but managed to copy the poem in my journal before letting it go. Was the first time I’d come across the word susurration & reading it in the comments here prompted me to dig for my old journal to find the poem & share it. You are not the only one asking! Not even sure I got the author’s name correctly as my handwriting isn’t too clear in my old journal. Worth sharing it tho’!!!
It sounds as if the forest of your brook's watershed may have been clear-cut. This can happen when trees are removed wholesale. Streams dry up in summer, only to become torrents during storms. I am very sorry to hear about the life of your land. I've had friends who's wells actually dried up after clear cutting happened near their homes.
Suburban development. My house was within walking distance of farms when I bought it decades ago. Much of the most recent destruction of the stream bed was from a culvert that carries it under a street that became almost totally blocked when the metal liner collapsed--the township never did routine maintenance. That combined with torrential downpours and being below the crest of a NJ "mountain" has caused the destruction.
Thank you for writing with such beauty about the devastating changes you are seeing. It is absolutely essential for all of us to reckon with the losses that are occurring. And. I have been thinking a lot about the resilience of nature itself. About what happens after a forest fire. After a flood. The redistribution of elements. Painful losses and the recovery from them, that can seem unbearable to those who remain. Sending care and deep appreciation for your contribution here.
Oh this truth is so heartbreaking Georgia. The summers of our youth were so lush, alight with lightening bugs (midwest term), and fluffy brown caterpillars walked our same path all season. Crickets sang, frogs bellowed and birds chirped endlessly in the summers of my youth. Finding wiggling tadpoles in the creek on the farm was a thrill. I still listen for nature’s music and watch for the fluttering of soft wings...it is all disappearing.
It just breaks my heart to think about the billions (yes, billions) of birds lost in the last 50 years due to habitat destruction and the use of harmful pesticides. Older friends who are active birders like me tell me about the huge numbers of migrating warblers they used to see in spring and fall. Bald eagles and other raptors were saved from near-extinction with the banning of DDT years ago, but now we have neonics, one of the most harmful classes of pesticides, being used everywhere. Climate change only adds to the stresses faced by birds.
Exquisitely if painfully stated.
Thank you for a beautiful new word: susurration! I can only imagine your sorrow as you watch our destruction of the planet on display in your space. I've been in my place 30 years, and I look at the forested park behind my house as a threat rather than a refuge these days. The city, in its infinite wisdom, refuses to cut down the dead trees, and insists on cutting down the invasive English holly and blackberries and leaving them in place. I have a tinderbox 100' from my back door.
Be safe! Where I am in NJ EVERY ash tree has died in the last 2 years. I had to have 14 cut down in less than an acre of woodland. One had a trunk with a diameter of more than 3' which could not be chipped and NJ does not allow the wood from the infected trees to be removed from your property so it was felled and is just laying there. I have three enormous spruce trees that have a canker after having been weakened by droughts and then flooding. They each have a branch spread at their base of at least 25' diameter and they will go soon as well. It seems like all I do is spend money on cutting down beautiful things that have died.
And I love the fact that home owner's insurance will not pay for property damage done by dead or dying trees coming down. The company line is that you are not covered because you failed to maintain your property and you knew that the dying tree was a hazard. I wonder how all the people on the West Coast are going to deal with the inability to get affordable insurance now that so many companies are pulling out of the market.
Sounds about right........sadly
“Soylent Green”
Who knew it was a prophesy, not science fiction?
It came to my mind too for a number of reasons.
This makes my heart hurt. I'm so sorry.
I see the same devastating effects of flooding in my neighborhood south of Boston. Scary stuff.
I was recently in France and I met up with my cousin who lives in Toulouse. We haven’t seen each other in 5 years, so lots of catching up. In the course of our conversation, I mentioned that my car was 23 years old, she said that in France, the government requires that everyone drive an electric or a hybrid car. And no one can have a car as old as mine.
All of France is like this. Cars are banned from central Paris. Bike lanes everywhere.
Food is fresh, portions are smaller, buses and trucks are not gasoline-powered. Everybody recycles. Food markets don’t have vast arrays of processed foods, bags and bags of chips and snacks, sugary drinks—just fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, cheeses, wines, staples. Very, very little processed food.
Houses aren’t 10,000 square feet for 2 people. People have just what they need. No more, no less. No overconsumption, no excess. The US would do well to take Europe’s example.
Not perfect, by any means. But we cannot keep going on the way we are, for that will surely end in disaster.
Marla, I totally agree that this model, or something similar is way past needed in the USA, but would be problematic to instigate (oy! Can you hear the protests?!). As to recycling, yes too most of it, but plastics are the biggest bugaboo: https://theconversation.com/decades-of-public-messages-about-recycling-in-the-us-have-crowded-out-more-sustainable-ways-to-manage-waste-208924 Every time I write/mention plastics, I recall the scene in The Graduate (1967) with Dustin Hofmann at his college graduation party (if I remember correctly) when an older gentlemen whispers in his ear about future opportunities…his single advice “plastics”. Good lord, who knew?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSxihhBzCjk
I remember reading a book years ago about the influence of the plastics industry on government policy regarding solid waste. Basically, we're paying the price of the environmental damage that plastic packaging has caused. Meanwhile, the amount of plastic used in packaging food products, electronics, etc. has dramatically increased. I notice it every time I go to the grocery store. It's become nearly impossible to avoid. I think the plastics industry needs to be held accountable.
Ellen, I’ve read of efforts to make manufacturers responsible for their “chain of custody” from product to packaging & have skin in the game for disposal of any packaging (particularly plastics)—long, hard slog to see progress on this. If, just if, corps had to be responsible for all aspects of what it sells, perhaps they’d come up with more creative and truly recyclable options/packaging. For instance, today I went to the store looking for natural unbleached bowl-type coffee filters. I use them at the bottom of my countertop compost bucket so stuff doesn’t stick & that are themselves compostable. One pack lasts a long time, so I wasn’t seeing what I’d purchased before….but….ding ding ding!…they changed their packaging & instead of coming in a plastic sleeve, they came in a small cardboard carton—wonderful & are compostable or recyclable.
I think those are the same coffee filters I buy! :) Alternatives to plastic packaging exist, but we need to get companies to use them.
A couple of years ago, a certain beverage manufacturer was promoting the fact that their product now came in plastic bottles instead of glass. Really, THAT'S what you're going to brag about?!
I hope they can keep what they have. The far-right is nipping at their heels. Sounds like when I went from Texas to Seattle, so much awareness of the things you mentioned. Grocery stores are an abomination, especially the processed “food.”
Agreed: "we cannot keep going the way we are." Last time I checked, France had 50% the per capita carbon consumption of the US (and a higher average standard of living). But that's still far more than the global norm. And they depend for 70% of their energy on nuclear power, a can of worms that's going to spill open in the intensifying warming cycle, political instability and neglect of infrastructure maintenance already under way. (See e.g. Harvard historian of science Serhii Plokhy in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/14/poisoned-legacy-why-the-future-of-power-cant-be-nuclear.)
I can just hear the MAGAts: "but MY rights!!"
Thanks for this glimpse of another possibility.
The combination of greed and willful ignorance are killing the planet. Just as tobacco companies did all they could to delay, confuse, and undermine studies related to the correlation of cancer and respiratory illness to product use, Big Oil and Coal use the same playbook. While tobacco companies diminished the quality and length of life on an individual basis, the fossil fuels industry are accomplishing the same at a global/societal scale.
As the American political system has been subverted by the corrupting influence of lobbyist money, societal imperatives such as climate action, healthcare, gun violence prevention, wealth inequality, and education are stymied by corrupt politicians, and of course, certain members of the U.S. Supreme Court and their spouses.
At a time the country must embrace a core of facts, evidence, science, and reason, 40% of the country seek to abandon democracy, knowingly or not. I work to help all people understand what is happening and why with hope that people will stop clinging to Fox News talking points before it becomes too late for the next generation and generations yet to come.
As always with gratitude to Heather Cox Richardson and the Letters.
George, you are spot on. Lobbyists = money=greed=power. That is what has ruined civilization. Greed for more of everything NOW. We, meaning Homo sapiens, will survive the climate crisis we have invoked, in much smaller numbers than we are now.. Our descendants will have to rebuild and restart, first by adapting to the heat, then the bitter cold, and eventually to a new world climate with what species manages to survive with us. I hope those, way in the future, generations will have learned some valuable lessons from our misuse of our resources. I hope they are kinder to each other and all other species. We still have 5 to 10 billion years for Earth to survive. Next time I hope they (future Homo sapiens) get it right.
Greed. Inner poverty. Lack of love. All to the point of suicidal mass madness.
Or to sociopathy.
Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov: "This sense of sorrow is spreading around the world. It is connected to a deficit of the future."
( from Thomas Roger's NYT review of his book Time Shelter and interview of Gospodinov)
Re Time Shelter, I found these words, written earlier in the year:
BEASTS
We are animals. Animals—often feral—that have lost their survival
instincts and replaced them by… the ideas of the moment.
The most reprehensible thing about our societies
is how we have replaced the Soviet lie
which sacrificed the present to a mythical future
by the sacrifice of the poor, of our children and of all future generations
to assuage the present greed of a few.
Must read this.
First, I'll try to find out more from my stepson and his Bulgarian family, who did in fact tell me the plot of the novel. But I'm not a great reader and didn't take in the author's name...
Bulgaria is a country that has long been of special interest to me, starting with my first visit, nearly a decade before that connection came into being.
Bulgarians are special, in that they were cut off from the mainstream of European history for many centuries, and this makes them both outsiders and insiders...
However, their own sense of "no future" has been more pronounced than in many other countries. Ever since my first (working) visit in 1994, I've seen families sending their children to make their studies and their lives abroad... Wherever I go, I meet bright, ambitious and highly adaptable young Bulgarians... who will not be returning for more than family visits.
Meanwhile the country is graced with the leadership of the bodyguard to Moscow's last satrap, Todor Zhivkov. He and cronies.
Yes, I wonder, too, at what lore will be spoken about “the ancestors” and the wonders of a world-no-more, by those pockets of humans that may remain—if the lore remains at all. Tho’ just today I read a, um, disturbing piece on the horse race to develop AI (responsibly of course/snark!!!)….so who knows who/what will be the “dominant species” of Earth in the future. That humans can “forward think” this possibility is amazing, yet maybe empty of fruition to deal with.
The would-be promoters and users of AI don't have the nous to make wise use of ordinary human intelligence, let alone this "golem intelligence".
Another millstone around our necks as we face the rising seas.
Why do we always count only the supposed profits from our inventions, never the cost?
The same knife that can prepare a salad can be an instrument of murder. Malice in, malice out.
And. "actual malice" inferred by reckless conduct which in the same as intentional wrongdoings.
Hi Barbara, I'm watching this AI horse race critically as well. In all the talk about AI and the "singularity" I cannot help but notice an almost religious zeal. Sometimes I think that this stuff is the substitute that tech-fan atheists created (need?) for believing in Christ's second coming... It sure looks like believing in a "machine God" that will appear and will magically solve all of our problems (the Saviour that will save us - with _more_ technology, of course).
Machine God, well, makes more sense than the God our Pharisees worship ($)
I dunno. To me, they both don't make sense. There's a lot of money behind Machine God as well, and it also has its prophets (Elon Musk et al). This is definitely not a god of the poor, but of the rich and entitled 1 or maybe 10%. And in my opinion, there's an enormous amount of time, energy and resources that is wasted on the summoning of this God that could have been used for things that are way more useful and necessary...
So true, shouldn't have worded it like that: I'm no fan of AI as people have not looked at "unintended consequences (or maybe intended). Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
I keep envisioning a group of kids with a box of matches out behind the garage goofing around…what could possibly go wrong?! Kinda the same thing with gene editing/etc…..and the glee at discovering & creating just because we can that blows past the “but should we?” pause.
Me too.. But hey, all technology ever invented only ever contributed to the well-being of mankind, right? There were never any downsides to it, right? *glaring intently at Mr. Henry Ford and Mr. Oppenheimer*
Yes, Dutch Mike, bull's eye.
I began to wake up to these new religious beliefs when, around age 50, I had long conversations with a newly qualified engineer half my age. Now, there have been several distinguished engineers among my forebears as well as among friends and, before that, fellow students. But this was the first time that I had met an engineer who was absolutely uninterested in any of mankind's past achievements and completely taken with the latest developments in IT which, for him, put all previous inventions in the shade.
Later, I gave English lessons to an unusually intelligent young woman who turned out to be sharply turned off by both the style and, even more, the content of Thoreau's Walden, whereupon she announced to me The Singularity, with all the bright-eyed faith of one announcing Christ's "Second Coming".
Pity is, all these believers in this or in that idea , are clueless when it comes to understanding that they have gotten so excited about a concept, a theory, a model, that they've taken it for the reality it supposedly points to or represents.
And off they go forming their chapels and conventicles -- when it's not their newfangled covens... Beliefs, beliefs... Onion skins.
"conventicle".....great word, interesting history. I lived in a "convent" for 7 years but we were very "public" and mostly conformist! Though the history of the Catholic Sisters in the Immigrant Church of the U.S. is crowded with non- conformist women leaders. Much under appreciated and wholly underestimated by male church leaders.
On second thought, maybe they did engage in " conventicles" though of a different variety than the AI zealots of whom you speak.
Thank you, Carol.
I note with interest your very telling comment on Catholic women leaders who have the nerve to make good use of their minds: “Much under-appreciated and wholly underestimated by male church leaders”. A tale I've been hearing too often in recent decades—especially in Ireland where the long all-powerful Catholic church has practically imploded following who knows how many decades of ingrown clerical abuse of power. Today, women represent the live forces in Irish Christianity.
Before going on to say harsh things about authoritarian priests, I have been struck by how, regardless of denominations, the most exemplary Christian clerics I have met have shown the deepest appreciation and respect for women and their contribution to the life of the religion.
Still, I am sure some will take offense with me for this criticism of the most reactionary Catholic forces in America and Poland, where such is the passion for the institution and its Authority that the Church persists in abusing political influence and upstaging Christ and his religion. This is no doubt more than understandable, given the close identification of the Catholic Church with Poles' long downtrodden national identity and the hostile reception given to Catholic immigrants and their religion in America. Nevertheless, it corresponds to the needs of the past—“Let the dead bury their dead”—not the present or the future.
Quite apart from ingrown patriarchal misogyny and attachment to forms rather than substance, our world is beset by a gross imbalance that threatens mankind's very survival: the masculine principle is so heavily preponderant and the Feminine still so despised and marginalized that even feminists neglect it and indulge in macho posturing.
Result: societies that are like a bird with one wing.
"Pity is, all these believers in this or in that idea , are clueless when it comes to understanding that they have gotten so excited about a concept, a theory, a model, that they've taken it for the reality it supposedly points to or represents."
Wow. Can I use that quote, Peter? That sums it up nicely, and I would add that these believers are so taken up by their theory that they utterly forget the reality around us which we call the World, or in another word, Nature. Some even go as far as to _reject_ Nature, and wish to leave their hopelessly badly designed organic bodies, hoping one day to "upload their consciousness" into a computer or machine of some sort, leaving this world and entering a blissful virtual reality. If that isn't a tech-age metaphor for ascending into heaven, I don't know what is.
A personal question out of curiosity (you don't need to answer it if you don't want to): I'm intrigued by the fact that you mention Henry David Thoreau in this context. And your quote which I would like to copy reminds me of the metaphor of "mistaking the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself" which is typical of (Zen) Buddhism. Could it be that you are the more, shall I say, phenomenologically inclined type? Some influences from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe or Friedrich W.J. Schelling perhaps?
Edit: oops. Excuse me for being the n00b here. Just found out I could click your name and see a short profile. "Interest in Buddhism and Shiatsu" give it away just a little ;)
Thank you, Dutch Mike. Sorry I couldn’t answer earlier but I had an off day.
You are more than welcome to use that quote and anything else. As is every reader of LFAA. I only hope that, where it is more or less valid, the content of the message will get through.
Here's a writer, David Abram, who sees so many aspects of urban westernized man's alienation with crystal clarity:
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/retreat/files/abram_the_spell_of_the_sensuous_perception.pdf
https://www.amazon.com/Spell-Sensuous-Perception-Language-More-Than-Human/dp/0679776397
Strong influence of phenomenology here, especially Merleau Ponty.
I was influenced by a French phenomenologist who avoided the Parisian limelight, Michel Henry, from the moment in 1987 that I read a book of his that threw a huge rock into the pseudo-philosophical duckpond: La Barbarie (barbarism).
Also by a Texan, Pete Gunter, whom I got to know when we were studying in Cambridge -- https://petegunter.net/biography/about/.
I had always been curious about Bergson but Pete introduced me to Whitehead and process philosophy.
I am not well read and deeply regret not having a proper basic education in western philosophy but, as a natural skeptic since childhood, questioning what I could not understand rather than accept “eat it all up, it's good for you”, I have at least found that, where I asked myself important questions, answers came to me in time. And those in turn set off more questions, still irrigating a mind much in need of irrigation… and washing away some of the ideological dirt that sticks to the skin…
Re. Buddhism, people think that any connection with religion involves belief and those who follow such a path are “believers”. My experience has been the contrary.
Hence those words “onion skins”. Peeling away. Tears. And what do you find when you get to the heart of the onion?
(But I'm no nihilist...)
And have spent several years recently translating a difficult Christian text.
I have lost track of how many times I have heard or read the phrase "blocked by a powerful lobby" or words to that effect about some action the public wants to have done, or sometimes seen an article about how legislation is passed, sometime written word for word, to please "a powerful lobby". That's in the mainstream news. What I have rarely seen, and seen mostly in alternative press is a challenge to "power" of such lobbies as illegitimate or corrupt. I look in vain (though I'm sure the current SCOTUS could find it, perhaps citing ancient imperial manuscripts) where lobbies are granted any legal right to veto popular initiatives,, and where Congress is given an duty or even any right to accede to them.
I Agree, JL, lobbyists are like cockroaches and termites - they survive.. They survive on the greed of politicians and political parties. There are a very few exceptional politicians who refuse to take money from lobbyists (or at least claim to) 3 names come to mind, 2 Democrats, one Independent, Zero Republicans. The largest feeders at the trough seem to be the political parties, DNC, DCCC, DSCC, RNC. As far as I can tell, the only reasons for their existence is to collect money and feed a large portion of that to mainstream media.. My understanding is that at one time, they sought and trained viable candidates in various States as needed. ALEC when it was formed in the early 1970's had the jobs of 1) taking over the State legislatures of all less populous States for the Republican Party, and then writing all the needed legislation. Among the founders of ALEC were the Koch brothers.
Jack Abramoff was convicted of bribery in his lobbying efforts. He claims he was just doing what lobbyists do. Considering the seemingly patent conflicts of interest one commonly sees public officials shrug away, his account seems at least partially plausible:
Abramoff describes how he "lavished contributions, meals, event tickets, travel, golf and jobs on innumerable federal public officials with the expectation or understanding that they would take official actions on my behalf or on behalf of my clients."
"As a lobbyist, I thought it only natural and right that my clients should reward those members who saved them such substantial sums with generous contributions," he writes. "This quid pro quo became one of hallmarks of our lobbying efforts."
He also describes wooing congressional staffers -- particularly chiefs of staff -- with the lure of future employment. "After a number of meetings with them, possibly including meals or rounds of golf, I would say a few magic words: 'When you are done working for the Congressman, you should come work for me at my firm.' "With that, assuming the staffer had any interest in leaving Capitol Hill for K Street -- and almost 90 percent of them do, I would own him and, consequently, that entire office. No rules had been broken, at least not yet. No one even knew what was happening, but suddenly, every move that staffer made, he made with his future at my firm in mind.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jack-abramoff-new-book-corruption-in-washington_n_1064602
Thank you JL, I'm glad Abramoff was brought to justice. Why weren't the legislators and chiefs of staff also brought to justice? If as we say "No one is above the law", then no one should be excepted. When I was a teacher, and a County worker I had to sign under penalty of perjury documents, every year of my employment, stating I would not and had not accepted any gratuity from any individual or company and that neither I nor any member of my immediate family held any stocks from any company doing business with the school district, or the County in which I worked. Even when I went to work for privately owned businesses doing business with State, District, or County with which I was consulting. I couldn't even buy a cup of coffee for a government employee. In addition we had to watch annually very boring videos on the subject of bribery or sexual harassment. It didn't matter if I was working for a giant corporation or a small consulting firm, the same restrictions applied. I would be amazed if these requirements did not apply to legislative employees. I know both the House of Representatives and the Senate have codes of ethics and ethics committees. The problem is they are run and enforced by the chickens not the foxes.
There is no shortage of compelling evidence that earnest and careful people can be and are subconsciously biased by any number of factors, and a lot of it is inevitable. That's to say nothing of those who regard those with ethics as fair game to be exploited. We cannot eliminate our biases but we can sometimes ad balance to them, identify and monitor them, and follow protocols to avoid them, as in randomized and fastidiously documented scientific research, or in the avoidance of obviously potential conflicts of interest as you describe. My father worked for a large corporation that fired several executives for accepting significant gifts from vendors to the company. The potential conflict of interest in chumming up with those you must sort dispassionately seems abundantly self-evident, yet politicians bristle and brazen out de facto bribery, as though their resistance to bias was a foregone conclusion. I read a statement by John Roberts, bereft of evidence, that Supreme Court justices were ipso facto, thus immune; a self-serving conceit or lie, if there ever ways one.
And We the People, perhaps because our own unexamined biases get in the way, seem far more ready to grant impunity to celebrities; entertainers as well as politicians, when they behave in ways we would decisively condemn for those in less prominent roles; sometimes stunningly. I know well educated people in responsible jobs who STILL think Trump walks on water. It's hard, and I'm no great example, but we as individuals and a society need to taking more long, hard looks in the mirror. At any time reality can crush us like bugs, but fortune favors seeking out reality and learning her ways.
Follow the money. Who and what is being bought?
Wondering if it is as many as 40%. I say this as a person who was in New York City in 2001. After September 11, the degree of human kindness, bravery and common sense that we encountered was something I'd never imagined. Almost without exception, I saw everywhere the essential goodness and generosity in people. Sharing resources without being asked to. Neighbors caring for neighbors. Individuals and communities looking out for each other. Same when we've had additional events that have shut down much of the infrastructure. So. I just wonder whether there are ways to make more visible the actual numbers of our fellow citizens who fall into that category. Fox News viewership does seem to be an important number. The only resource I've come across that, to me, addresses the proposition that people generally have good sense when they are called to use it, is Vote Forward. Mobilizing individuals who are eligible to vote, to do so. Here's a link: https://votefwd.org/
I remember those days as well. A week or so later, my partner and I flew to Yellowstone on a long-planned vacation, and when people found out we were New Yorkers, they hugged us. It was healing to be recognized and in nature, but I was triggered every time I saw smoke. And ultimately the nation was maneuvered into fighting a war in Iraq, rather than Saudi Arabia where the highjackers originated, and we've been paying for it ever since.
I am not well informed enough to understand the complicated politics, but I wonder to what degree the CIA-sponsored overthrow of secular Mosaddegh in Iran fostered "Islamic" extremism, and to what degree the Middle East would be off our RADAR if there was not so much oil in the region?
A legitimate question, I'd say. Let's not forget that the war's biggest supporter, Dick Cheney, was a Halliburton CEO.
I think that due in part to our deliberate misinterpretation of the Second Amendment, and our recent history of slavery and the slaughtering of native residents of North America, there is a deep cult of violence in the US. The US is known for it in Europe. Even the message of National Anthem, despite the social aims of our revolution and Constitution, is focused on battle. I recall in the days after the 9/11 attack, someone put up a Website of gathering across the world of memorial gatherings in solidarity with our country. There were pages of such photographs. My recollection is that many other societies offered to stand with us against the cruel attackers. It is also my recollection that the Republican Party dismissed such support, choosing to exploit the tragedy to unleash military adventurism. They dismissed the UN and "old Europe", fabricated the "Coalition of the Willing", declared that we could no longer wait for our casus belli in Iraq to be verified, and marched, with apparent visions of converting oil rich Iraq to a client state, into a military quagmire. Republican campaigns against settled law protecting human rights and social diversity and justice is also violent, even if no firearms are displayed.
Ironically this is mostly being done under a claim of the authority of a religion that preaches "love thy enemy". I have heard repeatedly that while we must take absolutely literally that the Universe came to be in as it is in six days, and that Noah managed to preserve two of every species on earth on the Ark, that Jesus teaching against violence cannot be taken literally, and one must have special knowledge to know what he really meant. I don't know how many people embrace the cult of violence fully. I think many go along with it because they are not exposed to better information.
Excellent points! There are some examples of dismantling the culture of violence, among small communities and individuals. A recent article for Harper's by Olga Tokarczuk on the phenomenon of major shifts in public knowledge/opinion caught my attention and comes to my thoughts now (https://harpers.org/archive/2023/02/the-holy-multiplicity-olga-tokarczuk-scientomancy-divination-by-science/) and I'm seeing that it was excerpted from Salmagundi Magazine (https://salmagundi.skidmore.edu/articles/438-scientomancy-or-divination-by-science).
Might Tocarczuk's ideas be valuable in conceiving how to move forward against the scourge of Republican war mongering? And it's not just Republicans...
One more thought: Howard Zinn was above all against war (https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/howard-zinn-on-war/).
Howard Zinn on WarHow can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism? —Howard Zinn
Historically, the most terrible things — war, genocide, and slavery — have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience. —Howard Zinn
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. —Howard Zinn
I guess I'm always looking for a way to think forward... Great to be in conversation with you!
It seems to me that evil is abuse of power, even on much smaller scales than war. I part with absolute pacifists in believing that "necessary" violence in authentic self-defense is legitimate, but only as an authentic last resort. I liken violence to aggressive chemotherapy that always does unfortunate harm, yet carefully applied, can save or extend a life. I admire the martial art (that my daughter studied) of Aikido, that uses physics and finesse to redirect the force of an aggressive attack. I believe that a key role of legitimate government is to not only require inevitable conflicts be settled peacefully, but to, so far as practical, provide access to just and effective peaceful means for doing so. The role of police is to keep harm to a minimum. It seems to me that the cult gun culture sees guns as a talisman, a declaration of a presumed right to use deadly force at will, if only in fantasy, and too often, acting out with deadly results. I would not put all gun owners in that category, but know from experience that some people get disturbingly weird about them.
The wealthy people and corporations who pay the lobbyists and buy legislators are the instigators, but the are 74 million willfully ignorant co-conspirators. The 74 million are the unsolvable part of the problem.
Very true Rex. After I re-read what I wrote I thought I should add Koch, Barre Seid, any many more of the 1% who do all they can to concentrate more wealth/power while weakening the United States through dividing and conquering. It is maddening. I'm not giving up on the 74 million -however, to your point, in 2016 people voted for the corrupt incompetent narcissist criminal and his theocratic sidekick -not having any experience. In 2020 -anyone who voted for the criminal organization had four years of racism, incompetence, corruption, misogyny, and attempts at authoritarianism. I consider them to be "factose" intolerant.
And the flatulence of their opinions does have that stench to it now, doesn't it?
Yes, I do think it creates holes in the ozone layer.
Factose intolerant, indeed! But I don’t see any justification for hoping that their condition can be remediated in time to preserve sufficient livable space for the earth’s large mammals.
"Factose" intolerant! Brilliant!! :D
I'm not sure that the problem is unsolvable, or at least totally unsolvable. We saw a lot of the same plutocratic swagger and corruption in "The Gilded Age", but collaborative push-back expanded rights and the middle class. Not perfection by any means, but generally trending toward social justice, and even environmental responsibility. I don't recall who said it and I don't know if what he said is strictly true, but some years ago someone on the radio spoke a turning point when the media dialed down speaking of the public as "workers" and increasingly used the word "consumers". Of course most adults are simultaneously workers and consumers, but somehow, to me, the "consumer" role sounds far more passive, and I think that mass media has consistently encouraged a state of public passivity that is inimical to democracy and which has allowed a massive shift of power to occur to those with more money within my lifetime.
"A shrewd victor will, if possible, always present his demands to the vanquished in installments." - Hitler
Professor Ian Lowe of Australia’s Griffith University told The Guardian that he recalled reading the 1985 report that identified the link between greenhouse gasses and climate change, and worked to draw public attention to it. “Now all the projected changes are happening,” he said. “I reflect on how much needless environmental damage and human suffering will result from the work of those politicians, business leaders and public figures who have prevented concerted action. History will judge them very harshly.”
The bigger problem is that these changes are accelerating, likely resulting in the fact that there will be no human history to record the judgement.
KEM, my thought exactly, when I read that statement by Ian Lowe. “....there will be no human history to record the judgement.” I feel very sad this morning, sitting in the cool, rainy monsoon in India. I cannot imagine being able to live anywhere in the coming decade. I am now just 74. This feels like a “Chicken Little” moment. OMG.
Thank you, KEM.
Such massive content expressed with so few words.
This comment of yours -- this witness statement -- needs to be broadcast.
In another comment on Professor Lowe's statement, Jim Cossitt puts his finger on what he sees as a "human inability to accurately perceive, analyze and mitigate risk".
But the failing is not "human".
Human beings share built-in survival mechanisms with other life forms. The threat to the survival of human and other living beings on earth arises from the total dependence of supposedly "civilized" urban man on thought processes and technological add-ons that have resulted in divorce -- total alienation -- from the natural environment.
The original inhabitants of the Americas built great civilizations that grew up and ultimately failed, but these peoples and other so-called "primitives" throughout the world never lost awareness of man's interdependence with the natural world, always falling back on innate resources so neglected in recent centuries that they have been forgotten.
Our only hope lies in rediscovering what we ultimately are and freeing ourselves from the heavy chains of total dependence on all that we are not.
I'm more optimistic because those tipping points will take time to have an effect. We have the technology to reduce humanity's impact on the climate. Will it be enough? No. Will humanity survive? Most likely. Will future generations be happy campers? Maybe not as happy as we are, but they will survive and maybe even thrive.
One mega-trend not talked about much is the reduced investment in hydrocarbon exploration even as demand for energy is rising faster that expansion of use of renewable energy sources can accommodate. Oil will become expensive enough to force a more rapid switch to renewables. Oil companies will profit, of course, but society will change because it won't have a choice. I mean, even ExxonMobil is investing billions in carbon capture and storage and in lithium mining to support the increased demand for electricity storage batteries.
Another mega trend is reduced birth rates almost everywhere. This will reduce the strain on natural resources. However, new economic models are needed to avoid economic calamity.
The future willll be more interesting and challenging that our present, but I am hopeful humanity will adapt
I wish I could share your optimism, but when forecasts show the point of no return occurring as soon as 2 to 6 years from now, I don't think the results of "investments" will happen within that short a time period. At this point, I don't think even drastically reduced consumption wold be enough change.
To me, it’s basically a thing chemists call a “runaway reaction”. It speeds up itself, and therefore it progresses exponentially - meaning the thing seems to be running fine and then suddenly blows up in your face before you know it. Already in 1912 (!!) scientists warned about the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide*1). We’re now more than 100 years further, with absolutely no reduction in CO2 emissions, rather the opposite: CO2 levels keep rising year after year, even after every climate convention…
*1) See “The Rodney & Otamatea Times (Waitemata & Kaipara Gazettte)” of August 14, 1912.
Those worst case scenarios occuring that soon are quite low probability. I'm not saying, "We'll be fine." I'm saying we have a good chance to avoiding the worst regardless of Republican obstruction. Physics, economics, and public opinion will override their resistance - likely not in time to avoid hitting an early tipping point, but in time to avoid the worst.
Sorry, Jerry, that's too much like saying you're optimistic and "she has a good chance of recovering" when your child is desperately ill.
The earth is big and humans are pretty adaptable. Climate abuse may not extinguish our species but is likely to cause great catastrophes. Doing something different may soon be imposed on us. That said, we harbor additions paths to destruction that arise from our collective irresponsibility and/or selfishness.
I think you meant "addictions" and, if so, that expresses it well.
But when you say that "Doing something different MAY SOON be imposed on us" that's too much like telling an alcoholic who's already developing cirrhosis of the liver that he may "soon" have to stop drinking.
Sometimes medical interventions are as risky as the disease. Think of cancer surgery or chemotherapy. Think of bariatric surgery.
I'm curious, though. What would you do differently to overcome Republican obstruction?
With premature chemo I'd have been dead 20 years ago, I got my heavy and effective treatment 15 years ago and am duly grateful.
As for your question, I'm keen on showing films - newsreels, The Triumph of the Will, etc. etc. that display the rise and rise of role models Hitler and Mussolini, to whet their appetite. Then, downfall.
No, not "low probability." At least, those who calculate probabilities (climate scientists) have been underestimating bad outcomes for 50 years.
KEM, the Earth has time—approx 5 billion years, give or take a day or so—to evolve another intelligent/dominant species (I have read that Homo sapiens are currently considered the apex predator on Earth)…hard to know if we will or, if we do, there will be any evidence left of our time here. A speculative short story on such a theory to tickle your fancy: https://www.vice.com/en/article/3kj4y8/gavin-schmidt-fiction-under-the-sun
Oh, I should add that if we humans can’t hack it, we will be ultimately recycled into whatever comes next—as is all matter. Nothing, after all, is wasted. In a weird way that gives me comfort to know that some random molecules of “me” shall be utilized to create something else…or to float around until its needed/used.
Hope to see you in whatever molecular form we end up in, Barbara!
Morning, Lynell! I hope to join that molecular form myself!
Morning, Ally! I'd be lost if you (and your family) weren't there!
Thank you, Professor Richardson. Fifty years ago, I was living in Maine, and wound up with a job in the High Arctic, with the US National Weather Service. I have seen, firsthand, in my lifetime, the catastrophic effects of human and industrial activity. The damage at higher latitudes is now extending to lower latitudes where most of humanity lives. I am not optimistic. The only answer IMHO is a drastic reduction in the earth’s human population. I pray that natural processes (reduced fertility, lower rates of marriage etc) will produce that result. The only other alternatives are far more painful. Meanwhile, the Republican Party is a fossil. Unhappily, it is turning America into a fossil as well. Unless Americans can reject this new Know-Nothingism, we deserve our fate.
Eric, since you have personal experience in the High Arctic, would you kindly indulge me and read "The Treeline" by Ben Rawlence? Many libraries have it. I have read it three times in the past 12 months. Thank you!
Thanks for the advice. I’ll look into it. I have observed tree lines at several different locations and latitudes. The lack of trees creates an otherworldly experience. One of my excursions was rather dangerous.
Rawlence spent 7 years tracking the changes in various locations including Wales, Scotland, Norway, Russia, Alska, Greenland, and Canada, all as far north as the trees grow. He argues that the 2 degree tipping point is already in the "pipeline" and cannot be averted. He interviewed the locals, natives, etc. If you have any interest in the area from your work there, it's a must-read. Thanks for your response.
Some try, but not enough. Sadly
The ocean circulation disruption is ominous. It is just one of a slew of specific tipping points that are MODELED to occur sequentially as temperatures continue to rise. When one reads what they are, the scary scenarios makes sense, and made even more scary when one realizes that those models have been more right than wrong. A good layman's summary is provided in the following link:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/08/world-on-brink-five-climate-tipping-points-study-finds (the 5 tipping points are what could happen in our lifetimes. Many more are listed.)
Of course the models have a range of uncertainty that we should endeavor to resolve with more detailed data (for instance a global grid of measurements of ocean temperatures, currents, and salinity). However, there is enough technical knowledge upon which we could act now. Biden's policies support just that (though I would add more nuclear power). That the Republicans are resisting and promising to dismantle efforts to curb human'-caused climate change is stupid snd criminal. And hopefully toxic to their chances for election success...
Yes, the ocean currents and the jet streams are the Earth’s circulatory system & they are currently on life support. So far I have yet to see a techno-pacemaker that will “fix” things (human hubris=what could possibly go wrong w/ any fix we “devise”?).
We could always send those cold Republican hearts north to keep the Greenland ice sheet from melting?
Love this! Thanks for the (sick) chuckle!!!!! Oh, and a supply to the Antarctic as well…heck, dispatch them across the globe where glaciers are melting too.
As they endeavored to dismantle efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 (see 100Panthers above); malicious madness servicing petty, plutocratic motives.
Well put
Jerry, here is a Guardian article—just published today—about the 2025 Project from Heritage Foundation & how it impacts climate change legislation in Congress & what, sadly, the current Republican majority is doing to quash any efforts to deal with it:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/27/project-2025-dismantle-us-climate-policy-next-republican-president
Actually we knew about climate change back in the 70’s and the Carter Administration took it seriously at a time where we could do something about it. Reaction to this brought on the Regan Revolution...where a McCarthyism approach to science and facts started the NYT Sunday edition in 2018 covered this. I don’t have it handy but should be read by all. Thanks Heather!!!
I have memories of Mobil ads on the op-ed page of the Times denying their role in global warming, but I'm not sure when they stopped.
It’s amazing how the oil companies became the modern version of the Visigoths!
Christopher, Is this NYT article ? Wouldn’t allow me to gift.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html
Wish I could dig this up. Google didn’t t help
I believe somewhere in my files I have it, will see if I can post it
“Losing Earth_The Decade we almost stopped Climate Change” NYT Sunday magazine two parts August 2018
Mike Pence is typical of the fundamentalist Christians. They believe what they believe and don't bother them with facts. I first learned about the beginnings of global warming in an ecology class in 1970, at that time the professor "thought" we would have at least 100 years to fix 'things'. Now, 50 years later, from what I read, we may already have passed to point of no return. Some people argue, well we deserve what we get as we have only ourselves to blame. But that isn't true. We are taking down millions of other organisms with us. We used to joke in biology about cockroaches surviving anything. Well I hope they suddenly develop intelligence. But then again we are the most intelligent species to evolve so far and we certainly haven't used that intelligence well.
Ah, but Fay, ARE we the most intelligent on earth? I posit that we are too full of ourselves that all but a very few are even trying to determine that by communicating with our fellow creatures. Oh, we humans are clever and industrious to be sure—after all look what we’ve accomplished!—but just perhaps there are other beings who move to a different beat within the ecosystem than we & maybe have a wisdom/knowledge that we do not. Just a mind puzzle.
You are so right, Barbara. Our accomplishments are judged by our own mindsets. Thinking of other ways to be, these accomplishments look like disasters. The circle of life will continue, with or without us, but we are making it so painfully difficult.
I'm normally not a militant person, but I wish thunderbolts and lightning would strike down those obstinate and incorrigible repubs - first tfg was publishing his plans for a dictatorship, now his former sidekick announces that he would do away with the EPA and other urgently needed remedies Biden has announced which are dealing with climate change. Obviously, these stupid people don't see or feel the heat that's building up across the globe, while they are sitting in their airconditioned super yachts. I trust that Nature will take revenge on them first, and that the younger generation will not tolerate this nonsense to become reality.
The problem is, Marli, Pence, Trump and their ilk are old - not quite as old as me, but approaching my age. But, they are so self centered, they don't give a damn. Their children, their grandchildren, who cares? I left them enough money, let them fend for themselves. It's all about ME.
It would be nice to hear what tfg's youngest and the other stupidos' kids have to say about their fathers' stupid plans. Are those kids brainwashed or do they see the death traps organized by their own fathers?
Would be nice to know. Tiffany and Barron do not seem to be as brain-washed as the original threesome.
Don’t you believe it, just incomplete versions of Dad
My guess is they don’t care, either. They have their money and their minions, and are probably thinking they can live out a comfortable life holed up in a big fortress stacked with dollars and guns, saying: “Let all those poor suckers out there die. See if I care.”
Well, the thunderbolts and lightning struck Mitch McConnell dumb just as he began a press conference. After a few minutes of glassy silence, they escorted him away. To be continued...I guess.
I was appalled that he wasn’t whisked away to the ER. I cannot stand the man, but having the political optics make such a stupid, stupid choice to rejoin the press conference after his seizure or stroke or whatever it was, was insane. Fun fact: Kentucky republicans in 2020 (I think) changed the law such that the (D) governor cannot appoint a replacement if a senator leaves office before his term expires. Hmmm, I wonder why.
On a similar note, Dianne Feinstein needs to retire too.
Well, the thunderbolts & lightning had to start somewhere....
And where better?
Sidekick? I prefer boot-licking lackey.
This was a hard read…it brought back so many memories. Back in the late 60’s my then husband and I did a pinky-swear to be child-free given a long planetary/humanitary view we held. We kept our promise. Being acutely concerned about this for so many decades, but feeling powerless to effect change on my efforts alone (did them anyway), discussing this with others they often shut me down as being too depressing, or not the right moment, too scary, etc. Thing is, and I’ve long known this, until the “ruling class” (corporations/business interests/governments) step up BIG TIME, nothing will change. We are seeing the prelude to the big show that is unfolding and many (big exception to ostriches who still hide) are starting to wake up (um, “woke”??) to how this will affect THEM and their loved ones. Seems to me there will be, really, no place to hide from this. Humans, despite our incredible gifts, have descended like a swarm of locusts upon the earth to feast….not, I think, intending to ravage it…but will nonetheless.
"Professor Ian Lowe of Australia’s Griffith University told The Guardian that he recalled reading the 1985 report that identified the link between greenhouse gasses and climate change, and worked to draw public attention to it. “
The problem is how most of us process risk: actual v. perceived.
Unless and until it's a problem in our daily lives, most of us don't perceive these things to be an actual risk. Once we get forest fires kind of flood and oppressive heat all of a sudden. It's a problem period but it's not a crisis.
The crisis, if there is one, has to do with human inability to accurately perceive, analyze and mitigate risk period
While I agree with you Jim, I think there is something else here as well. Moving from the macro in our body politic---the powerfully moneyed influence of the fossil fuel industry, the GOP seeking votes by stoking ignorance rather than seeking knowledge, etc.,---is the fact that as a society we have never dealt with a comprehensive, immediately existential crisis like this before. The closest analogous period would have been the oh-so-small window of national contemplation of the true impact of nuclear war, during the Cuban Missile Crisis of the early '60s.
We simply cannot get our collective minds to click onto crisis NOW, ACTION DEMANDED mode. Whether individuals sense the climate crisis in their daily lives or not, the majority of Americans, across the political spectrum, have trouble crossing fully into the all hands on deck place where we clearly are. It necessitates too much sacrifice, too much jettisoning of our current way of life, our habits, inclinations, escapes, and of course, a realization that our endless tomorrows might not be.
Knowing the wolf could come to the door any moment is one thing, grasping that the wolf is already there is another.
Yeah, Daniel, the call is coming from inside the house!
Thank you Heather for your daily gift of news and knowledge. I have learned so much from you over the years !
The Republicans in Congress should have a junket to discuss climate change and show it is just a hoax. The perfect place is Death Valley. They could even do it night when it is cooler. No A/C.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2382959-death-valley-may-have-just-had-the-hottest-recorded-midnight-ever/
It was ONLY 120°F.
I've been there at 120F -- Memorial Day weekend, 1970. I think they should go in the day, when it's 130F.
a simple but very heartfelt thank you. For this letter and all the others that have come before it.
I love your moniker!!