https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...-only-way-avoid-worst-impacts-climate-change/
I will skate through whatever years I have left; like everyone, leaving the mess to be cleaned up by someone else.
A grandnephew at the ripe old age of 3+ years died on the 21st of November 2019. That was to have been a decompression day anyway. We had just flown back from Hawaii (Maui), I had had my seventh birthday (15th) it was my sister’s birthday (21st) and Elon was set to unveil the CyberTruck. Jasher’s sister, a little older at the time died four and a half years earlier ~ the family has now lost two babies ~ genetic testing has just begun. Some stupid person said, “he is in a better place.”
It seems I have been exposed to too much death over my short lifespan. If you would like the record; trust me, it is yours. While I voluntarily resigned my military career in 1994, so my wife could pursue a career of her desires, it was like killing myself. I watched a prerecorded Seal Team TV show, after returning from Hawaii, while my wife was gone; she can do without the war stuff. Jason (I think) went thru withdrawals realizing after a physical injury could end his active military career. His superiors were encouraging staff jobs where he could remain on active duty. I went thru that same withdrawal, only I kept it internal. The loss of a career, no matter how you lose it, is a death. Following the loss of my military career; my family suffered other significant losses. Through all my losses of which included the loss of democracy and a declining climate that I experienced first hand back in the summer of 1978, so far I can still stand here before you.
I live on a small lake in Washington. I and my wife maneuvered ourselves over the years to this location. Over the last five years as we drive around, we comment to each other about the increase in heat stressed deaths of our forests around us. This year included clear cuts of large swaths of the forest timber. The migration of people here is increasing significantly and they want the same beauty we have come to love and enjoy. But it comes at ever increasing clear cutting trees and loss of homes to all the creatures that live there. Buba (sp) over the hill spends his money shooting; but his home schooled military freedom trading is coming to an end. Too many people, and no forests to hid in.
Back to Maui. The cove we like to snorkel in has all but lost its beach. Condos that were to die for once upon a time are all too frequently flooded during higher than what use to be infrequent tides.
Spent big bucks to snorkel in and around a relatively uninhabited island ~ only to find large amounts of coral dying off. My wife had breakfast while in Portland with my third cousin last week. Her, second cousin, family has decided sea level rise is real and they are only just now thinking of selling their ocean front compound on the big island. Some fool will buy it.
The signs of death by climate change are all around you/us. There were two palm trees missing, their roots had been eroded since one of our Other visits to Maui. Had my birthday at Mama’s Fish House. We had stayed there several years before, and noticed a tree missing as we walked along the beach following dinner.
People in Los Angels will not move because of the smog that I ran in as a teenager. I ran track and cross country. No, people will migrate out as it becomes too damned hot. I cannot for the life of me understand why people would rebuild a home in Paradise, California. Kathleen Avenue or street ~ whatever ~ it was named after my sister by my father. He, a high school friend or two and I planted five hundred sapling pine trees there in the sixties. A high school friend of my wife’s just posted a picture of their replacement home in it’s almost complete stage in Paradise, California.
The US/Mexican wall ~ climate change.
Homeless population growth ~ climate change.
War used to be our solution to population growth ~ according to my draft dodging high school teacher. Maybe his name was Trump.
I have ”steeled” myself over the years and fought thru the anger associated with the loss of life, jobs, relationships and so on ~ I have “Steeled” myself.
Maybe you have read or watched the Hunger Games. There are other fascinating stories, but the signs are all around you. No matter your elitism, you or your family will die due to climate change. My wife and I had to walk earlier, almost O’dark-thirty to avoid the heat on Maui.
Any bets some folks are building underground facilities to house the anointed ones? They cannot hold their breath long enough ~ even underground. Mankind has lived on the face of the earth for four to six hundred thousand years. California Quail will not return, just sayin’. What will the unnatural evolution of mankind look like under artificial light and oxogen? Will they become maggots like we were called during basic training at Fort Ord, California in May and June of 1969? Basic trainees had white name tags and were called maggots as we low crawled in the sand among the ice plants. The havoc, death and distraction of climate change will not heal itself over night or possibly even another four to six hundred thousand years.
Society, yes even the US population has grown addicted to “little yellow pills.” While teaching at a community college near us, I told my students that people took these pills to be stupid ~ stupidity is not genetic, again just sayin’. A person has to deliberately want to be stupid or they are too lazy. I wanted my students to become who they wanted to become, not, not who they were told to become.
To reach the turning around results of unchecked climate change as implied in the above article, who will you watch die or will you kill because you “had your life.” Simple test ~ are you blessed or are you grateful? There is a yes or no; up or down, blessed or grateful answer here.
Would you like another yellow pill?
