AUGUST 9, 2021
“Live kindly, live loudly.” –Ruby Fuller (2001-2020)
Our beloved, eldest grand-daughter, Ruby, died of a malicious leukemia before her 19th birthday last year. But her motto and her example reverberate through my heart and mind today of all days. Had she survived Ruby and her cohort would be in the streets today—with fury and determination. She was a dedicated climate activist to her dying day.
That is in keeping with her motto. But today those four words shout to me “People have no right to destroy life on this planet.” Among all living creatures our species can and must stop destroying the conditions that have supported life for millions of years. This Sixth Extinction is happening because of us and if we fail to prevent its ultimate destructive effects, we will have proven ourselves to be another failed species, alongside trilobites and stegosaurus.
On the Facebook page you see Ruby marching with her friends. Her sign reads “MARCH NOW OR SWIM LATER”.
Today the UN’s climate change study group has released a report that states with certainty—reduce greenhouse gas emissions or destroy the future of life on Earth.
All around us now we see the effects of global warming—fires in Greece, Turkey, Siberia, Canada, across the western U.S. Island nations going beneath the waves in the Pacific. Flooding and destruction of towns that have stood for centuries in Germany. Cities and farms running out of water—Nevada, California, Guatemala, Minnesota, Manitoba, Utah, western Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Borneo, Iceland, Colombia, Scandinavia–as we try to pretend this is a “drought” which would mean temporary, not a long-term change in climate.
Click here to see global drought meter.
Covid is a real-time test for our species. Around the world we see the radical individualism, the solipsistic ignorance and arrogance that fuels the anti-mask, anti-vaxx cultish behavior. If this stubborn refusal to face reality pervades our species’ reaction to climate change, this planet will rid itself of most living species and some tough, heat resistance algae will eventually carry life into the next evolutionary phase on this planet. Nature will show us no mercy.
The emotions that underlie the anti-vaxx, climate change denial, more-guns-no-matter-what syndrome are fear and anti-social fury. The eventual end of that emotional storm would call for revoking all laws that require social responsibility—no more speed limits, no crosswalks, no stop signs, no turn signals, no sewage treatment systems. If Exxon can get rich destroying life on this planet, why should I care if I infect a few people down at the super market or in Walmart?
I am warning my friends in New Zealand, the worst of predatory capitalism is coming their way. It has been widely publicized that it will be the last best place on this planet as economies and governments and social structure fail and chaos, violence and devastation reign. So the CEOs and billionaires and MBAs are already buying up land in New Zealand. The locals will soon find themselves locked out of gated compounds, staring at walls with armed patrols looking down on them. The motto there: live blindly, live proudly.
My grand-daughter was right. Now is the time for us all to march. If we swim it will be in salt water, as fresh water vanishes from much of the Earth.
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A look at this IPCC report and how it differs from the ones that came before.
Salton Sea–a toxic lake in California.
Here’s a critical look at the degrowth argument for saving the planet. Not sure where I would stand on this issue but anything that curtails our use of plastic and kshrinks landfill use seems like a big win for Mother Earth.
Change happens–two historic anniversaries today are the A-Bomb on Nagasaki, and Pres. Nixon’s resignation.
Towheeblog 
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