Hard Climate Change Facts

This is an op-ed submitted to the N.Y. Times in 12/2018. Not surprising it was not accepted. It is very direct and something most people refuse to fully grasp. De Nile is a beautiful river and the consequences just keep flowing whether one wants to see them or not.

I have had it with this whole climate charge debate! It is dire and is just getting worst; still no real charge is happening. CO2 levels are increasing, ocean levels rising and the oceans temperature is rising with it. There is a mass extinction happening and somehow, we feel we are immune. It is guilt producing. Looking at our kids and grand-kids how can it be anything but when the realization is we are killing their plant. It does not seem like there is enough that the average individual can do to stop the momentum. We can recycle, turn down thermostats, reduce electric consumption, stop using plastic bags, and placate our guilt for the time being. Still the news keeps coming- more needs to happen.

We are addicted to this society of convenience and carbon. It gives us what we need, food, clothing, shelter. What more do we need? Throw in mind distractions like, internet, smart phones, Facebook, and TV to forget the guilt. Yet, through it all, the news keeps coming and the guilt re-emerges.

Food is the main culprit. We have learned to get food not produce it. It is called produce because one needs to work to make it happen. We go to the food store and there it magical is. Whether that food is Coco Puffs or organic carrots it is all based on us buying into the carbon system that created it. The US government realized the power of food in the “Indian Wars”. Kill the Buffalo and the natives fall into line, more accurately food lines, depended and well behaved. The corporations of today, who are the real unelected governing body of our country, get it. Control the food and no one fights back to hard.

What do we as a society do to get food? Drive our cars to work, many with one person in them, therefore buy gas. Work jobs that mostly support on some level the society which is killing itself. I have worked for non-profits and guess what they need money to operate. They seek donations and the biggest donations come from those entrenched in the societal structure that are killing what the non-profit is working to alleviate. There is no job that on some level does not add, no matter how little, to the down fall we ignore before us. Every dollar made or spent on some level contribute to the down fall of the planet. The food we are offered to buy is grown, packaged and shipped with carbon. If one is rich enough, they can buy “Organic” food and easy their conscious a bit, the poor have no choose it is full on carbon food. I cynical laugh at seeing that organic food packaged in plastic, is the plastic organic? This brings up the plastic delusion. Plastic creates carbon. If plastic is put in everything then everyone buys it. How convenient for the plastic companies and inconvenient for our poor Earth. I saw plastic on metal paper clip the other day, why? In my compost some how a “paper” soda cup ended up. When I found it the paper was gone, what was left was a plastic coating with logo readable. There is hardly a product anyone can buy any more without plastic, therefore carbon, in it.

Take a slow and concentrate look at our everyday life’s. It is depressing, everyone of us is contributing to climate disintegration. What choose we really have? If one wants to eat one needs to contribute to climate destruction. Some more, some less, but contributing all the same.

We need revolutionary changes not incremental! Our elected official have no balls! I wrote my Oregon senators last winter about fertilizers and the algae blooms they create. I explicitly said “Are you brave enough to outlaw things that are killing our planet?” Both replied, and I paraphrase, “We are looking into it.” This Spring Oregon’s capitol’s drinking water was unsafe to drink. Why- Algae blooms!  Their looking into to it is not stopping the problem. Their courage is minimal. Who has the ball, male or female to stop this?

As I stated I am tired of the talk that goes nowhere. I am tire of seeing news over and over again of the impending doom that await my children! I am guilt ridden that my choose is not if I kill the planet but how fast. I am angered to the point of tears, (truly ask my wife) that I have no choose but to harm my grand-kids. If I want to eat, I need to play the destructive game.

We as a race we need to reassess our relation to Mother Earth. It is time to stop tell her how we want things to be and start listening how she needs things to be to survive. From there we can make long term plans how to dismantle our current dilemma and start working with within her natural laws. More importantly we need strong brave individuals RIGHT NOW! People who will stand against this cooperate money monarchy to create change- NOW! Thing like outlawing the production of gas-powered cars. Outlawing chemicals that kill. Outlawing plastics made with petroleum. Maybe buy a few less fighter jets at $80 million apiece and use the money for solar panels for individual homes. Make all new home energy neutral. Eliminate the insane idea and any laws suggesting that corporations are individuals or have rights as individuals. Even with these suggestions this is only a start. The whole social structure that produces these items needs to be re-examined. An electric car is still made with tons of chemicals, needs toxic battery, needs materials gained through strip mining, uses plastic. You get the idea.

 Such suggestions many will think impossible. Have we no faith in humanity? The first oil well was drilled in 1859 while the first car was made in 1885 and though we were already creating carbon before this with coal this is truly the beginning of our modern way of being. In just 160 years our society has created were we are today with little technology to begin with. Today we sit on a plethora of technological options at our finger tips to explore a petroleum free way of existing. We just need to move beyond our fears and the cooperate greed that keeps us entrenched.

None of this is hard, we just need to do it! We may feel like this will create some form of suffering. It may for the average citizen for a short period of time. It definitely will for cooperate America. Who owns the future? I want a choice that is not wrapped in guilt! When I think of the love I have for my kids and coming grand-kids, great-grand-kid, and on, I will sign up to suffers. Suffering done with love is not suffering at all but a gift.

Copyright © 2019 by Joseph and Human Anonymous