Like everywhere in the world, we’ve had a very-strange-weather summer. Extraordinary amounts of rain, day after day of grey, and more tornado warnings than you can shake-a-stick-at. With the single exception of our coleus, most of our plants are smashed and stressed. Given the devastation we see across the globe, the fires and floods and drought…the 1000 year storms happening every year. Even though, like our neighbors, we daily proclaim that we are “sick of it,” I tell myself that we have nothing to complain about.
And then I catch myself. In fact, I do not want to normalize or accept the unacceptable. We should be sick of it. We should be shouting at the top of our lungs. This devastation is, after all, not necessary.
In the early 1980’s I had a professor who accurately foretold what the world would look like in the 2020’s if we did not address the carbons we spew into the atmosphere and other pollutants we pour into our environment. He was not a sage or fortuneteller. He was a scientist who studied data. He considered factors like population growth, the ecological forces driving mass human migration and the stresses that a changing climate would put on our resources. He caught my attention one day when he said, “If you think the oil wars are bad, just wait for the water wars.”
Amazon has plans to build the biggest carbon polluter in the USA by a factor of two. The AI-data centers popping up everywhere are massive consumers of energy and spewers of carbon. In my latest rant (that Kerri had to endure) I wondered why the people who consider themselves the most entrepreneurial, the most innovative, namely the tech-bros, can’t seem to be bothered to REALLY innovate and insist on developing and using renewable energy to fuel their centers.
The current administration is squashing green energy while facilitating open season on the burning of fossil fuels. The fires burning across the globe, the storms dumping feet of rain, the mudslides, the drying rivers…are the result of our actions. Or our inaction. Decades of inaction. What I am writing is not news to anyone. In fact, it is old news, as old as my professor in 1980. It’s why I do not want to accept the weekly violent storms as the new normal. I – we – have everything to complain about. Our nation, our leaders plug their ears, cover their eyes, and stuff oil money in their pockets.
I read a heartening article this morning about the people of Hawaii helping each other the day after their community was devastated by Hurricane Lala. The people are helping their neighbors every way possible. Food, fuel, clothing, medical supplies…They are finding ways to help the extended community. They are taking care of each other.
It has been my experience that the best of humanity arises in people after a tragedy – at least for a few days. People helping people. They reach out. They bring what they have to give so they might lessen the suffering of their neighbors. They drop divisions and join forces. They deal with the immediate reality.
Make no mistake, climate change is a tragedy. It is a rolling storm, a human-fueled cataclysm. We need to recognize it for what it is. And then, in the midst of the devastation, in addition to bringing food and fuel and shelter to our neighbors, we need join forces, to come out, reach out, speak out and vote for representatives who will deal with the immediate reality, leaders who insist on protecting the future rather than enriching themselves.
read Kerri’s blogpost about COLEUS
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The Direction of Intention 