“We need to act now. We only have one atmosphere and we of the Marshall Islands only have one land to call home. We don’t want to move and we shouldn’t have to move.” – Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
“There is a long list of important issues before all of us, but the grave threat that climate change poses warrants a prominent position on that list.” – John Kerry
“Unless we’re carbon-free by 2030 the world is buggered.” – Emma Thompson
Many people have no concern about global warming – politicians and CEOs, who have their heads in the sand. It’s true that for years the sands of the Middle East are loaded with oil, but it’s time for change. The problem with fossil fuels is that people rushed to bring these destructive energy ideas to the world but never considered the consequences for man and the planet. Global warming is real. Reputable scientists have documented that world temperatures over the last decade have risen dramatically. A phrase for those two words together as far as I know is global warming.
It should be obvious that global warming is happening as shown by melting glaciers. Islands in the Pacific have disappeared into the ocean, never to be seen again. Look at the fact that temperatures have risen over the last few years, way above the average expectancy. If that’s not enough, what about all the abnormal weather like a seven-foot snowfall in Buffalo over the course of one day a few winters ago? In some areas of the city, six or seven feet fell in Western New York in November 2014. If you say that’s Buffalo, how do you explain the winter of 2011-2012 when almost no snow fell at all here? There was some on April 23, 2012, though. What about all the outrageous hurricanes – you might have heard about Katrina – tornados, earthquakes and tsunamis over the last decade? These weren’t normal occurrences.
In early March 2012, my Christmas cactus started blooming again. It had done so a few weeks before at Yuletide, so it’s not as though these new flowers were just late. On March 14, 2012, on my morning walk, it was sunny but a bit cool – only in the low 40s. Less than a half mile after I started, I noticed a few swarms of what appeared to be black flies. About a week before, the temperature here rose into the mid 60s, but a day later, it barely got into the 30s. The Buffalo News on March 25, 2012 reported that the city saw eleven straight months of higher-than-normal temperatures – and counting. The paper also reported that the 820 temperature of the previously Wednesday was the highest recorded for the month. In late winter of that same month, I took my daily walk in shorts and a t-shirt – perhaps I should have worn the renewable energy one with the words, The answer is blowing in the wind. A week later in the spring, I did the walk wearing jeans, quilted flannel shirt, down vest, gloves and knit cap. The wind chill temperature was in the teens and it may even have hit single digits. In 2012 on the weekend of April 14th, the National Weather Service reported over one hundred tornadoes in the Midwest. If global warming isn’t occurring, how do you explain all these aberrations? I prefer the two words in the last sentence in italics to climate change, which is too foggy.
Another look at it is through a bit of logic. Either global warming is happening or it’s not – these are exclusive possibilities. We can take two approaches: do nothing or exercise caution, taking steps to solve the problem. Ending dependence on fossil fuels is my suggestion. If we take measures and global warming isn’t happening, we’ll still be all right. If it’s occurring and nothing is done, we’re up the creek – no paddle here – and it’s rising fast, just like the oceans. Did you expect otherwise? What do you think we should do?
Clarification is necessary for those who welcome the warmer winters here or any place where winter should last three months – not six. First of all, trees bud earlier than nature wants them to. With those early blossoms, a frost in May can kill potential fruit on peach and pear trees. Because of the above average temperatures, bugs and other harmful critters aren’t controlled. I hope you don’t mind mosquitoes, lime disease and the scarcity or high prices of produce at the co-op. The lack of snow anywhere might lead to drought later, affecting fruits and vegetables. If you still feel global warming is a hoax, you probably have stock in a fossil fuel company. You need to read Merchants Of Doubt: How A Handful Of Scientists Obscured The Truth On Issues From Tobacco Smoke To Global Warming by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.
Greed by corporations and politicians is a major cause of this disaster, as they rushed the technology. I’m not sure when rodents started racing, but people were doing it for centuries. The rat race was forced on many because of the need to clothe, feed and provide shelter for themselves and their families. This occurred when they worked in factories on assembly lines, in mines or at other menial jobs. In my 2003 book about work, chapter 5 is titled, “Boss spelled backwards is double SOB”. Having consulted for over twenty years, I spent time at enough corporations doing work for over two-dozen managers to see that there was a scarcity of competent ones, making this chapter title appropriate.
The pay was good, not matching that of lawyers or many consultants in the computer business and elsewhere, but one great thing when I faced an individual who pretended to be a leader, was that shortly I wouldn’t have to put up with the place or that person. Nonetheless, there was still pressure and stress. It wasn’t as much as full-time employees who didn’t have the luxury of departing. Many decided to change things by getting out of the rat race. I’ll spend time in the last chapter on Helen and Scott Nearing. In the years that followed, many followed their lead.
People made sacrifices and are still doing so. They realized being close to Wall Street meant they couldn’t sleep. They abandoned their crazy jobs and went into a simpler life. Now they had time for family and had a better chance of avoiding divorce or children who couldn’t recognize them. The deserters – this is in a really good sense – now attended soccer games and could be the teachers they couldn’t be to the kids because of the long commutes to work and endless hours at a place that was warped in the nineteenth century. Success tied to financial advancement is nothing but a sure way to visits to doctors’ offices, hospitals and worse.
“The 59th Street Bridge Song”, also known as “Feeling Groovy,” can be found on Simon and Garfunkel’s 1966 herb album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Slow down, you move too fast are words from the first verse. A year later the American pop-rock band, Harpers Bizarre, sang their version of it. “Day by day” is a song from the musical, Godspell, by Stephen Schwartz. It opened on Broadway in May 1971. The song reached number thirteen on the Billboard pop chart a year after the play premiered. It’s a creed for many people about making it through one day at a time. It’s sad that anyone has to live that way. The people who departed the rodent marathon had better ideas, while corporations and politicians saw only six months into the future, with no long-term foresight, except for their wallets.