I couldn’t tell if the bells were getting louder
The song they ring I finally recognize
I only know Hell is getting hotter
The devils getting smarter all the time.[1]
In the last two months climate change has moved from the abstract to terrifying reality. It’s no longer off screen disasters, melting glaciers, and disappearing sea ice it has become urgent and immediate. Watching cars being tossed around in ancient Rhineland villages and terrified commuters in China standing in neck deep water from a years worth of rain in three days brought the message from the vague periphery into the tunnel vision of monetary fueled denial.
A village in Canada has disappeared in the smoke and blaze of a wildfire ignited by an unprecedented drought and heat wave. Temperatures are soaring under a terrible, violent heat dome that runs from Louisiana to Oregon. People are dying.
It was an ignored tragedy when we saw sub-Saharan villagers being starved by famine, suffering from terminal dehydration, or baking under a cruel, unrelenting sun, as climate change turned the world into a hostile, deadly environment. It was easy to overlook Pacific Islanders lose their ancient homeland to rising seawater. They were distant, different worlds, or, and this is more likely, another example of systemic racism. It has moved to mainland America, Europe and China with a renewed energy and hunger. Climate change has moved to center stage, front page news.
Fortunately, Covid-19 has given deniers a new branch of science, infectious disease, to question, dispute and demean, so maybe we can make some progress. All it takes is a “Mask Recommendation” and they will be screaming so hard and loud for liberty it could be a perfect time to slip in a few more windmills, shut down a few oil wells. If they start drifting back to denying climate change we can have the government issue a statement on a new incentive for vaccination. Their cries will be deafening.
Of course, that’s only tongue in cheek.
We need to do something, though. It is getting hotter some places are drying up, burning down. Other places are drowning.
Climate change is like home improvement, it can be expensive as a preventative measure, but it’s disastrous as a remedial procedure. If you think installing a new sump pump costs too much, try footing the bill for a flooded basement. Clearly, in this case, an ounce of prevention is worth the continued existence of mankind.
It has been widely agreed the climate is approaching a “point of no return” and could be there as early as 2030. Off course these figures are only guesses, and most experts would agree we are already much closer to the abyss than anybody would have guessed. So, we need to vote for people who are willing to move the needle toward carbon We need to rally and protest and demand change. It’s like wearing a mask, you’re doing it to help all the people who are too stubborn to help themselves.
[1] Second Coming by Alice Cooper
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This post is republished on Medium.
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