Whatever your issue, it’s Global Warming.
Two nights ago, I watched Don’t Look Up and found it mildly entertaining, full of cliches and thin characters. The Big Short was sooo much better. I wish Adam McKay had made that kind of film about global warming — more absurd dramatization of actual events than satirical sci-fi. Sadly, many who see the film won’t even connect the circumstances to global warming.
The only parts of the film that felt poignant and moving enough for the topic were the documentary montages of ordinary (beautiful) creatures just living their lives — plants, lizards, birds, sea creatures, humans — all unconscious of their sudden. impending extinction. And the moment just before impact, when the astronomer sits around the table, holding hands with his family and a couple of friends; he mentions the quotidian things they will miss, like a good cup of coffee. “We really had it all,” he says, as the deluge of extinction overtakes them.
This morning, I woke up wondering what organization marshaled the talents of all those celebrities who made commercials encouraging (and exhorting) people to vote in advance of Obama’s first term. Why haven’t we seen that again?
I want to ally myself with any organization that is doing precisely that, but with a “cool the globe” agenda. Because people will listen to Ariana, Adele, Biles, Brady and Williams; and we can always count on Samuel L. Jackson to bring it home. So, suggestions?
Meanwhile, lying in bed this morning, I felt the need to verbalize (yet again) the reasons for this haunting obsession with the slow-moving catastrophe we face. As is often the case, a few words turned into a rant. By the end, I felt like one of those ancient prophets of doom — except with armies of scientists and sane people backing me up. Here’s what I wrote on my phone:
Whatever your issue is, it’s global warming.
We’ve treated the health of our Earth as a minor issue, low on the list of priorities. But we are realizing that all other issues are subsets of a healthy, liveable planet. When hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, fires, earthquakes and tsunamis can paralyze entire regions, causing untold devastation that lasts many lifetimes, wiping out lifetimes worth of culture, memories and hopes (not to mention wealth) in a matter of days, how can we ignore the problem?
Big fossil fuel corporations, their scientists, their bought politicians and news outlets, along with the propaganda machines of petro-states have kept us blind, or fighting against our own interests — just to insure they could squeeze more profits from their untapped resources. It’s time to stop fighting and focus on what is now (and has been for more than forty years) our generation’s most pressing challenge: how to address the extinction level, rapidly accelerating crisis.
Let us not be like the family of frogs in the pot of warming water, who get so comfortable, they won’t get out, until the water boils and they all die. The water is simmering. What’s at stake is not just the life of humanity, but the viability of all life on a ravaged planet.
It’s likely your ancestors fought for something, and you honor their values and their valor. How would they feel if they knew you did nothing while Earth became uninhabitable? If you have children, or plan to have children, or ever want anyone in the future to experience the things you love about this life, won’t you fight a little? For them? Just as so many have fought and died for you?
If you love animals or trees or music or food, won’t you fight to preserve those treasures for those who come after you? Stories, games, sports, our careers, our pets — however we spend our time — none of it will exist in a world that no longer supports life. If we let the planet turn into a living hell, there is no turning back. The experiment of humans (and of most other species of life) on Earth will have failed, because we will have failed to care for our planet.
Sure, the planet reorganizes itself every few hundred million years; so we, because of our greed, self-centered nature and short-sightedness need to accelerate that timeline down to less than one hundred years? Are we willing to extinguish the history of every civilization that preceded ours — all the wisdom, poetry and art — because we want that gas guzzling big truck and damn if we’re going to buy the electric version because of the libs!
This isn’t a liberal or conservative issue. In reality, it is conservative, because it is about conserving our home, our family, our friends and towns and nation, along with all other nations of the world, and the living ecosystems that support all life. None of that — including our precious “economy” — lives in a world ravaged by the global catastrophes of our own making.
As we have paved this road to certain doom, so can we chart and navigate others, more in harmony with the Earth and its ecosystems, paths that support life, rather than leading to collective murder and suicide.
We may still have time to decide. We must elect leaders who sincerely understand this challenge, and who are willing to work together to address it — whatever the costs.
We must elect leaders for whom there is no more vital issue than this, because all other issues depend upon this: a healthy planet on which we can live and breathe and grow food and move outside, among the other creatures who share it with us.
And that’s all for my morning rant. As our old friend Latke would say, “thank you very much.” 😊
