JULY 20, 2022 – I’m finding that the James Webb telescope images of the edge of the universe have radically altered my view of life here on earth. Perhaps that changed perspective is the mission of all “space” exploration.
If we earthlings, including the subspecies, homo americanus, get a lot of things “right” . . . Full stop. What does it matter if we get anything right if we get the most important thing wrong: our stewardship of precious earth itself? If we’re not entirely alone among celestial wonders, we’re certainly unique. Yet, despite of our status, we remain hellbent on destroying ourselves and our planet.
Unless you’ve been living in a cold, damp cave, you’ve read, heard or seen that our home’s on fire. Unless you’re a doubting Thomas or Thomasina to earn a scout badge for contrarianism, you know that the burning of fossil fuels is what now aligns us with catastrophe.
Given how far we’ve sailed into troubled waters—that is, how committed we are to the way we’ve ordered ourselves—it’s suicidal to abandon ship. How would we survive without all our stuff and the massive infrastructure that supports us? But it’s also suicidal to stay the course while betting against the odds at the jackblack table when the engine room is flooding and the engineers have pulled the alarm.
“What to do?” as my grandfather Holman would ask rhetorically (for he always had the answer). Go “Republican” based on outlying data points? Eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow we’re screwed? Get everyone to “go green”—as of last year? If, from a scientific perspective, this last way is the surest way to avoid disaster at sea, it’s also the least likely from a practical perspective. Most people can’t and those who can, won’t, “go green” as fast as earth’s condition now requires. The global economy is addicted to fossil fuels.
In America our ossified political structure precludes anything but glacial change. Worse, in fact: See the case of the tail (West Virginia; population, 1.8 million) wagging the dog (the rest of us; population, 327.7 million) and up-ending the Climate Bill and the SCOTUS decision eviscerating EPA authority. Ironically, political conservatives oppose conservation. Progressives, meanwhile, grouse about Biden “not doing enough for the environment.” They ignore the nature of our political framework: the president can’t legislate, except to the extent of offering and lobbying for a legislative agenda; an agenda that’s trashed by minority rule in the Senate. Yet, the president can’t rule by executive fiat: our Constitution and Judicial Branch won’t allow it. But most disheartening of all, a recent NYT/Siena College poll revealed that only 3% of young people think climate change is even a serious issue; only 1% of the total population think so.
Nevertheless . . . If I were Biden, I’d eat some catnip, drink a triple espresso, don my shades, clear my throat, and grab the nation’s attention by lighting a cherry bomb on prime time Zoom, Tik Tok, Facetime, Instagram, and network and cable TV. (Does such a thing as radio exist anymore?)
Stay tuned for the speech I’d give after the smoke cleared. (Cont.)
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© 2022 by Eric Nilsson
