I can remember the first time I heard the words “global warming.” It was 1970. I had decided (or rather my wife had decided for me, given her interest in living with an “employable,” which I wasn’t at the time after being fired from early Rolling Stone and being pretty depressed as a result) to go back to college and finish the degree that had been disrupted by my active participation in that phenomenon known as “The Sixties.” Education was free (really!) in California then, and I decided to do a semester at San Francisco City College and knock off the last lower division required classes before transferring to San Francisco State. I had to take a science class and - having not yet resolved my relationship with my Original Creative Genius In His Field scientist father - I was still terrible at math and science. So I took this brand new class called “Ecology.” There wasn’t any math or physics or chemistry (which I had mostly flunked in high school and damn near flunked the first time I went to college after the Navy). There was a whole lot of new information. It was the year after the 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill, one of the first Major Environmental Disasters. It was the year of the first “Earth Day.” I remember the professor was really good. He really communicated. And I came out of that class aware there were Real Problems facing us as a species. And even then, my political sense told me it was likely humans were going to flunk the test.
TC! I had to go under the covers with a book light and hide to finish reading this! And then caught myself checking my thermostat more than once today and thanking my air conditioner somewhat hastily. Can you make a piece like that in a few installments so I don’t have to hold my breath for so long? Whew. Totally lost my sh*t like I was reading Stephen King’s The Stand.
Reality check. Thank you, brother.
Doesn’t depress me. Actually gets me revved up and reminds me why I do not lose my optimism and glass half full. First is always to remember God’s original download to the mind of the humans. And when there is one day that all on the planet awaken to it, then we are good. So every step to abundance, whether it’s an excellent jobs report or the Progressives saying yes and not no, or the butterflies and bees finding a good garden, or common good thriving for our children in school, or finding a way to preserve manure into good sh*t for the soil….it’s the little things we do to create abundance that will preserve Mother Earth that sustains us. In this big ol’ Universe.
Wonderfully written....totally sobering. Stuart at LFFA remarked on liking your style this a.m. I second that. I like the way you integrate your own life story with the issues, something only a certain reflective longevity makes possible. Keep up the prolific work!! ( & keep listening to your smart wife!!!)
IMHO, homo saps are doomed as currently configured. The only workable solution I see is taking all the petrodollars from all the oil companies and countries and funding adaptation/recovery strategies. As in exchanging all fossil fuel burning machines/vehicles NOW for e-vehicles, world-wide. Justice for the countries and people unable to contribute much to the spewing of methane and CO2. Major paradigm and behavior shifts STAT-immediately, that is. Preparation for climate refugees, world-wide. Plant-based diets. No population growth. Etc.
I totally agree with you, but I strongly urge you not to hold your breath on any of that, lest you turn blue and die, and we really wouldn't want that. :-)
Not surprised, but still I'm speechless.
And depressed.
So am I
TC! I had to go under the covers with a book light and hide to finish reading this! And then caught myself checking my thermostat more than once today and thanking my air conditioner somewhat hastily. Can you make a piece like that in a few installments so I don’t have to hold my breath for so long? Whew. Totally lost my sh*t like I was reading Stephen King’s The Stand.
Reality check. Thank you, brother.
Doesn’t depress me. Actually gets me revved up and reminds me why I do not lose my optimism and glass half full. First is always to remember God’s original download to the mind of the humans. And when there is one day that all on the planet awaken to it, then we are good. So every step to abundance, whether it’s an excellent jobs report or the Progressives saying yes and not no, or the butterflies and bees finding a good garden, or common good thriving for our children in school, or finding a way to preserve manure into good sh*t for the soil….it’s the little things we do to create abundance that will preserve Mother Earth that sustains us. In this big ol’ Universe.
Wonderfully written....totally sobering. Stuart at LFFA remarked on liking your style this a.m. I second that. I like the way you integrate your own life story with the issues, something only a certain reflective longevity makes possible. Keep up the prolific work!! ( & keep listening to your smart wife!!!)
IMHO, homo saps are doomed as currently configured. The only workable solution I see is taking all the petrodollars from all the oil companies and countries and funding adaptation/recovery strategies. As in exchanging all fossil fuel burning machines/vehicles NOW for e-vehicles, world-wide. Justice for the countries and people unable to contribute much to the spewing of methane and CO2. Major paradigm and behavior shifts STAT-immediately, that is. Preparation for climate refugees, world-wide. Plant-based diets. No population growth. Etc.
I totally agree with you, but I strongly urge you not to hold your breath on any of that, lest you turn blue and die, and we really wouldn't want that. :-)
Still breathing, still seeking justice, especially with regard to climate