We've Opened the Box

Climate Change Update:

Eating breakfast and preparing to start work, while the meteorologist on Bay News 9 informs me from my television that the heat index is currently 100 degrees.  It is 8:10 a.m.

She goes on to say it (the heat index) will be 110 this afternoon and people should stay inside in air-conditioning if possible.

Last night, I watched in horror as a river in Alaska raged, and a whole house collapsed off a bluff next to it, into the river.  My horror was not mainly due to the house falling into the river, it was due to the river itself:  it wasn't supposed to be surging and raging, bursting its seams with water.  That wasn't supposed to be rushing water at all.  It was melting glaciers.  That water was supposed to be frozen glaciers, but instead the glaciers are melting exponentially faster than previous scientific models and warnings of climate change predicted.  I've been shouting about climate change (then referred to as just "the greenhouse effect") since I was a kid in the 1970's.  Very, very few people believed the science and the few people who were sounding the alarm back then.  This is one of those few times when I get zero satisfaction from being able to say "I told you so."

I don't want to see what should be solid, frozen, climate-controlling glaciers rushing past as a raging river, taking houses off of bluffs on its way past.  I don't want to know that a monster hurricane or several will almost surely strike Florida this summer, as the ocean surrounding us is like a cauldron of boiling water.  I don't want to be advised by the meteorologist on television to stay inside the house, and bring water if you even have to drive to work, as you may overheat in the car.

What have we done?  With the images of that river in Alaska last night, I now get the feeling:  it's too late to turn back.  One of my favorite television shows of all time was/is LOST.  There was a set of mysterious numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42; yes, I still remember the numbers!) that figured centrally into the story and themes of LOST.  There was a character who was tormented by the numbers in his mind, and was in a mental institution.  Another character, Hurley (you may recognize the name, as I named my dog after him), went to the institution (where he had once also been a patient, and had met Lenny and heard him repeating those numbers over and over again) in an episode, to try to get answers about the numbers from Lenny, the tormented character.  As Hurley talked to Lenny, he told Lenny he'd come to believe that the numbers are cursed.  He told Lenny that he played them in the Lotto and strange things kept happening ever since.

Lenny got a look of horror on his face and became extremely agitated.  "You used those numbers?!  You shouldn't have done that.  You've opened the box!  It doesn't stop."

That's how I felt, watching what should be solid glaciers raging down a river as melted water:  we've opened the box.  We shouldn't have done that.  It doesn't stop.

Planet Claire

I'm in the throes of some kind of very intense, poignant nostalgia tonight.  It started when I somehow got thinking about the B-52's first album and how much I love it.

Fall.  1979.  It was my first semester of college.  I was in Vermont.  I was falling in love.  It was one of the happiest times of my life.  It was also when I first heard this album.  One of my friends in my dorm was playing it.  "WHAT is that?  What IS that?!!!"  I was instantly and forever obsessed, mesmerized, and completely captivated.  This whole album, in my opinion, is a masterpiece.

I must have listened to this a thousand times, back in my beautiful, magical green mountains of Vermont.  Back then, I, and others from my particular mileau, tribe, posse, pack and/or ragtag band of hippie punk new wave flower children were already shouting about climate change, which wasn't even called that yet (it was called "The Greenhouse Effect" at the time).  SHOUTING about it, warning about it, but no one was listening.  We didn't have social media.  Our voices weren't amplified.  No one believed us anyway.  Bunch of hippie flowerchild punks, they thought.

Tonight, in 2023, the same green mountains that I listened to this song in over and over and over again, in 1979 and beyond, are flooded.  Whole towns.  Because:  climate change.

People--most people, anyway--believe us now.  Everyone is starting to understand that human activities really do impact the environment, and while the environment is forgiving, there are limits.  And we've reached them.  And we've exceeded them.  And now Canada is on fire, California is on fire, my beloved Vermont is awash in flood waters, the coral reefs in the Keys are dying, the ocean surrounding Florida has hit unprecedented high temperatures.  Our world is on fire.  Our house is on fire.

This song that I love so much is exactly the same as it was in 1979, but the world, the world... it's changed.  We've changed it.  And if there is any hope of putting the genie back in the bottle, we have to behave in harmony with nature, now.

One of my very favorite songs, from the B-52's masterpiece first album, this is "Planet Claire".

Imagining a Post-Fossil-Fuel World

It's an exquisitely beautiful Spring day here in St. Petersburg, as I sit here on my lunch break, working from home today, with all my windows open and a wonderful, warm, refreshing breeze (well, refreshing except for all the oak pollen infusing it and everything here, but I digress...) jazzing me up.  I can hear the not so far off, yet just far enough off, roar of the Indy cars as they practice for the St. Petersburg Grand Prix this weekend.  I've always been a passionate environmentalist and climate change activist, and vociferously anti-fossil fuel.  Yet I must cop to loving that fossil-fuel-induced sound, and getting such a rush from it somehow!

I dream of a world in which homes and businesses and cars are powered by renewable, clean energy sources like (and mainly) solar and wind.  Yet I think there should be an exception for Indy car sporting events, just a few times per year, so that future generations can feel this rush of adrenaline and excitement too, yet think to themselves "oh, so this is what gas-powered cars were like--wow, I'm glad we don't have that exhaust polluting our air, ruining our health, wrecking our ozone layer and causing climate change anymore.  This is fun and a cool throwback and nod to history and the combustible engine, but I'm glad that, when the race is over, we can drive home in our solar-powered cars, to our solar-powered homes, breathing clean, delicious and wonderful air always."

Say The Words: Climate Change

The news this morning out of Kentucky, and all the states impacted by the tornadoes last night brings my heart to my throat.  The governor of Kentucky calls the tornadoes there "the worst storm in Kentucky's history".

As I see the devastation on my television set, and sit here in Florida, where we are in the path of hurricanes that grow more monstrous year by year, the words blaring in my mind, heart and soul are:  CLIMATE CHANGE.  Say the words, news reporters.  This is what climate change looks like.  This is what climate change is.

And while no one can say for sure whether any one given weather event is the direct result of climate change, surely any adult alive now, who is aware of the science (which has been warning us for DECADES) or not, knows that the climate is changing.  Some do not believe that climate change is induced by human activity.  Some don't believe climate change is happening at all.  Yet clearly it is.  And, for some reason, it is rarely mentioned when horrific news like what is all over cable news right now about last night's tornadoes is in progress.

Maybe the reporters feel it is too soon.  Maybe they feel that it would be disrespectful to the victims, to those in the path of the tornadoes last night, living and dead, to speak of climate change in their reporting right now.  But, to that, I say, NO:  it is disrespectful NOT to talk about it!  Saying it's too soon is exactly like the people who never want to talk about gun control after a mass shooting, who use the same excuse:  it's too soon.  NO:  it's too late!

It is very, very late days now with climate change.  Our climate is changing, our glaciers are melting, exponentially faster than even scientists had originally predicted.  And we'd better start saying it's name, and talking about it, when these things happen, and during all the time in between things happening.  And we'd better start changing our choices and behavior, right now.  All of us, from individual human beings, to huge corporations need to move off fossil fuels NOW.

Climate change is in progress.  Are we going to avoid even saying the words, or are we going to name it, talk about it, and actually change to try to turn it around to save ourselves, all the creatures of the earth, and our awesome environment itself?

While Rome Burns...

I'm very sad and dismayed about our country and the world as I prepare to hit the hay tonight. Why? Because, instead of CNN et al. covering an important, positive, substance-laden rally in Miami today, in which Al Gore and Hillary Clinton discussed, in depth, her plans for tackling climate change, which was really news and really would INFORM voters about what one of the candidates stands for and will do if elected, and provide a clear contrast to her opponent, what are they covering tonight? "Trump slams Clinton..." Personal attacks and slander from Trump against Hillary. And tapes, tapes, tapes galore containing vile things that Trump spews. On and on. But no coverage of the actual issues (although, the fact that Trump is completely unfit for office, a con man, and a dangerous would-be fascist are all important issues to consider in the election, I will definitely give the media that, but couldn't they ALSO bother to cover a little SUBSTANCE about the huge issues facing our country and the world?), the actual policy differences between the candidates.

All the media cares about are sensational stories, spin, and ugliness. Why not cover the actual platform, policies and priorities of each candidate? Well, in Trump's case, he has none, other than banning entire religions, building walls, jailing his opponents, and "taking our country back from those people".  He specifically includes me as one of "those people", as he specifically said many times that Bernie supporters are "bad, bad people, folks" and "we are going to take our country back from those people". He SPECIFICALLY and clearly stated that at several rallies, when he verbally attacked Sanders' protesters or anyone he *thought* was a Sanders' protester.  It's all on tape.

Hillary, meanwhile, actually has very specific plans for how to fix what ails us, and make our country and our environment healthy. But does the news media cover that? NO. If they had any intention of doing so, they should have covered the ENTIRE rally in Miami today (which they did NOT), replayed it in part or whole throughout the rest of today (which they have NOT), and had their little panel of talking heads discuss it. They covered many, many Trump rallies in the primary season from start to finish. That is, in fact, how I know that Trump plans to take his country back from ME, specifically, as I am a "those people" and a "bad, bad people". So why don't they cover the fact that Hillary has the best, most ambitious plans to tackle climate change of any candidate ever, and that Al Gore was standing by her side, singing the praises of her plans today? Climate change is only the biggest issue facing humankind.

I guess that isn't as newsworthy as taped outtakes of "The Apprentice".

Al Gore: It’s Time to Bern a Few Bridges

Just my passionate two cents: I think one of my heroes should definitely endorse the other one, right now. I think Al Gore should come out and endorse Bernie Sanders.

Come on, Al, what are you waiting for? Bernie is the strongest candidate on climate change by far. Bernie has the progressive agenda. He gives voice to, and fights for, what the base of the Democratic Party has held in our heart of hearts for so long, while we and our country endured decades of Reaganomics surrounding and drowning us.

Are you trying to stay out of it? Now is not the time in history for that. Now is the time to use your hard-won and much-deserved influence and gravitas to stand behind the person who will fight to save our country and our planet. The stakes are high. The time is now. And what has Hillary ever done for you? What has she ever done for us, really? Look at Bernie. Look at his record, look at his history. Look at our country and our world, and the crossroads both face. The choice is clear. Your endorsement matters.  Do it.

Five Years

It's been five years since Katrina. As I thought of that this morning, a song by one of my very favorite artists of all time, David Bowie, came into my mind. It's a song he wrote based on a dream he had. It's called "Five Years" and it's about the end of the world:

Five Years

David Bowie is about 15 years older than I, yet we are both considered Baby Boomers, although some scholars say that people my age are really in a seperate, distinct generation, sometimes called "Generation Jones", but I and most people who are obsessed with such matters put all of us into the Baby Boom generation, calling us younger set the "Late Boomers". Anyway, from the first Boomers like Bowie, all the way through the "Late Boomers" like me, our generation grew up in the shadow of the cold war, and I think most of us always felt in the back of our minds like the world could end at any moment. The following political ad sums up the psyche of my generation, particularly of us younger ones who were the exact age of this child when the ad aired in 1964:

daisy ad

I still feel that the world could end at any time, although images of mushroom clouds have given way to images of polar bears clinging to small fragments of melting ice surrounded by water.

Katrina was the end of the world for those who perished. For the survivors, it wasn't the end, but it changed their world. And for those of us looking on from a safe distance, what have we learned? People are still denying that human-induced climate change is real, the Army Corps of Engineers apparently has still not fixed all the things wrong with the levy system and that ill-conceived MRGO canal to prevent another Katrina from devastating New Orleans again, and we all just basically are going along in denial, be it about the microcosm that is New Orleans, or the macrocosm that is our one and only precious planet earth.

If we don't wake up and wise up, if our spiritual evolution doesn't somehow catch up to our technological evolution, then we will remain like a two-year old who has stumbled upon daddy's loaded gun. We have all the things we think empower us, like nuclear bombs, oil rigs, dams and canals, cars, and all sorts of things that make our lives easier and give us the all-important, aforementioned POWER, or so we think. However, there is no real power in working against nature. That "power" is illusory.

The real power in this world comes from understanding our place in nature, that we are a part of it, not apart from it, and that we must respect it, not violate it. When we finally--if we finally and in time--learn to treat nature with respect and live in harmony with it versus trying to dominate it, then future generations won't write songs about the world ending.