AUGUST 5, 2019 – Gun control; immigration reform; student loan burdens; opioid crisis; arms sales to Saudia Arabia; support of Israel; relations with NATO allies; relations with Russia; relations with China; disease control; tariffs; war in Afghanistan; religious extremism; white nationalism; investment in public transit; transportation safety; affordable and accessible quality health care; storage of nuclear waste; proliferation of nuclear weapons; integration of public education; homelessness; affordable housing; funding of public education; sanctions against Iran; North Korea and nuclear weapons; disparity of income; funding for the arts; abortion; Supreme Court nominees; roadway and bridge repair; incarceration rates among blacks; racism; sexism; ageism; recidivism; invasion of privacy; police brutality; violent crime; campaign finance reform; foreign interference in American politics; tax fraud; internet fraud; loss of manufacturing jobs; solvency of Social Security; threat of financial crisis; anti-trust enforcement against social media giants; industry deregulation; gambling addiction; tax cuts; tax increases; inflation; deflation; impeachment of the president . . . to name just a few issues confronting our nation.
And then there’s the game changer: climate change. We’ve denied, dribbled, and dawdled our way through the game. The buzzer has sounded. We are now in sudden death over-time. The goal net is shrinking. If we do not act now, if we do not take control of the ball immediately; if we allow the deniers, the dribblers, and the dawdlers to hog the ball, in all too short a time, goal posts, crossbar and net will collapse. We will have nothing to score upon. Game over. Climate change “feedback” will sweep us—including the deniers, dribblers, and dawdlers—mercilessly from the field of life as we know it and have known it since the dawn of civilization.
Despite the warnings, despite the evidence, we have found it all too convenient, too desirable, too much in our perceived self-interest to deny or ignore what is happening.
If we do not act immediately, we have two basic outcomes. Worst case: an unprecedented die-off of the species within the lifetime of people being born today. Best case: unprecedented chaos, untold suffering, and World-War level casualties and disruptions within most parts of the world within three to four decades, in many areas of the world, within a much shorter time.
Call me crazy, call me alarmist, call me whatever you wish, but only after you’ve reviewed the science, the evidence. Based on my own review and assessment of such, I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the central issue is not science. It is culture and politics.
Would that we Americans muster the courage and conviction of Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, the 13-year old environmentalist. May she win the Nobel Peace Prize to amplify her voice even more. But far more critically, may she shame us, inspire us, inform us, and motivate us to act. Now.
For if ever—if ever—there were a time to lobby, to boycott, to protest, to demonstrate, to take to the streets . . . TO VOTE! Now is that time.
© 2019 Eric Nilsson
