Gene's Blog

Earth Cry

I’m not going to lecture. Overmuch. But we, of a certain age, the over 30 crowd and there are many of us, have some things to answer for. And I have no answers. I do have the questions, they are contained in the song appended to this post. I’ve written of this many times but now that it is virtually certain I will speak of what I know is coming. There are those who will dismiss what I say out of hand. They are the ones invested above all else in a way of life, a policy of life, that not only causes me distress but which I believe will lead to the greatest mass extinction event this planet has ever seen. The essence of this policy is simple. Dollars before people. My life has been dedicated to the opposite proposition, people before dollars. This is the essence of the conflict being waged here and now.

There are those who believe we can “kill” Earth. They are wrong. That is human hubris, nothing more. We CAN, however, make the planet uninhabitable for oxygen-based life. In short, Earth will chew us up, spit us out and continue her path around the sun as if we never existed. This is what I expect to happen. There was a period 640,000 years ago scientists call the Great Ice Age, it, they think, was something they call Snowball Earth, the entire planet encased in ice, miles thick, even at the equator. I have written of this here before. What we do not know is how long it lasted. It could be as much as 50,000 plus years. The Earth during that long slumber beneath the ice will heal and when the ice again retreats, life will have another chance here. This did not have to happen, not now, not this way. Our CO2 levels in the atmosphere have been above those that caused the Great Ice Age for nearly 14 years now. We, humanity, still have taken no action to reverse the damage we have done. The proposals, so far, have been ludicrous, not nearly enough, though our politicians, in their usual way, think they can pass a law reversing the course of nature. Two states have already done so. North Carolina passed a law forbidding any rise in sea level. Virginia passed one allowing an 8 inch rise. I am sure Nature is taking notes.

What global warming causes is climate change. The Arctic, Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are melting at unprecedented levels, there is open water at the Arctic – our response? Drill for oil. Of course. What business, and government, fail to understand is that the melt increases the surface water which increases evaporation which means more moisture in the atmosphere, which fuels stronger and more unpredictable storms. We have seen in recent times downpours that dwarf all existing records. In places where such is not expected. That is climate change, produced by global warming. We are seeing tornados of size and ferocity never before seen, in times and places never before seen. Hurricanes are appearing out of season, larger and stronger than ever before seen. This will continue. We, or our descendants, will see drought where it is not expected, torrential downpours where they are not expected, ever stronger and more violent storms where and when they are not expected. Scientists have been warning of this for many years, business has produced its own scientific reports denying global warming in its entirety. Dollars before people.

Upton Sinclair said: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” He was right. I don’t think he went far enough though. It is not only difficult, but impossible, when the people with the dollars spend them on producing “junk science” to refute anything that threatens their prosperity. I really don’t understand that. They don’t care about their descendants either, because what they have wrought upon the planet will prevent their descendants from life here. I don’t care how high you stack your dollars, you will not be able to burn them fast enough to prevent what is coming. Real scientists, those with no stake in the issue other than their dedication to truth, now say they believe we are past the tipping point where we might have been able to reverse what we have done. We is not really appropriate since it is the few, not the many, at cause here, but the collective “we” have allowed it to happen.

If we are past that tipping point, then there is no hope for homo sapiens. And no adequate answer to this poignant and hauntingly beautiful song. Enjoy it, and if you have answers, bring them forth. We need them. More to the point, our children need them. Earth Cry.

Would that I had hope for an answer.

If today brings even one choice your way,
Choose to be a Bringer of the Light :^) gene