Here we are again. Back in the middle of the middle of the middle. We need new people who have relevant ideas for giving us back our future, but instead? We’re looking for ways to “make things like they used to be.” All evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, we want our comfort zone back — urgently. We want to wrap ourselves in the blind belief that everything is going to be alright. All we have to do is believe it and like magic, it will happen.
Except it isn’t going to be like it used to be. Nope. No matter how much we try and fix it, we’ll never find “the old days.” I’m not even sure “the old days” really were the old days. We seniors won’t have to live through the destruction on the horizon, but our children and grandchildren probably will. We can’t even adopt a plan for change that might accomplish something if not everything.
The world — our physical earth — is changing and now, everyone can see it. It would be hard to miss. Dramatically in some places, slower in others. Ultimately it will encompass the entire planet. Earth will survive. The question is not if the planet will make it. The question is if we will make it?
Call it my “happy anniversary greetings” to the rest of the world. I don’t see us doing what needs doing. I don’t see international cooperation or even the majority of our states agreeing to anything.
So on this 32nd anniversary of our wedding, I look to the world and all I can do is hope and wonder that we all understand life isn’t normal and it’s not going to be normal in the way we want. Our comfort zones are in “duck and cover” mode. We are on the edge of the edge. We put ourselves here, mostly by paying no attention to the constant warnings of science of what would become of us if we didn’t deal with our world.
Not only did we ignore it in the U.S. EVERYONE ignored it. Universally.
Now, suddenly, there’s a terrifying rush to fix it. Except we want to deal with it gently. Not upset too many people. Maybe we should set up a few more agencies to “investigate” the issue. We have all the answers we could possibly need, but still, we need to hear them again.
It might be just a little late. Where was the urgency in all the years since we “invented” Earth Day, 52 years ago? Things are not better. \A few big cities have cleaner skies and we’ve unpolluted some waterways. That’s IT. We’ve created an even more destructive drilling technique, fracking. What could possibly go wrong with that?
Here in Massachusetts we have a lot of “dead shopping malls.” Some went down during COVID, but many of them died years — even decades — ago and have been sitting empty for years. Meanwhile, to “go green,” the state is cutting down the woods to build solar farms. Why, you ask, don’t they use those old malls and put the solar panels there rather than destroying what little habitat is left for the wild things? Good question.
Follow the money.
The wooded acres are owned by the state, so they don’t have to pay anything to destroy them. Someone owns the old malls. They’d have to pay someone before they could use them and we know — don’t we? — that we have to solve the problems of the world without spending any money, right? Massachusetts has a big financial surplus. Which we refuse to spend on anything important. That’s why the roads are a mess, the bridges are ready to fall down, and the railroads don’t run. No one is willing to spend the money to fix anything.
Right now, we’ve got all this Federal money to fix highways but you know? All they are doing is dressing up entries and exits of existing road. They aren’t widening roads, straightening wrongly banked curves, shoring up collapsing bridges, or fixing the dying commuter rails — stuff they’ve been promising to do for as long as any of us can remember. We’ve saving the money until all our problems are insoluble and no matter how much money we are (finally) willing to spend, it won’t matter. Way to go Massachusetts!
So the way I see it, what could possibly go wrong that hasn’t already gone wrong? And hey, we’ve still alive and who could ask for more? We’re all just hanging out here on the big blue ball and enjoying the ride. Wheeee!
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Categories: #ClimateChange, climate change, Earth, Ecology, Marilyn Armstrong, Wildlife
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
HI Marilyn, once again you have written exactly what I think. Our government is the same. It is so bad here that the only power utility is practically collapsing and our power is off 6 hours a day. People with the means have solar and generators but the bulk of people just sit without power. Our world wide leadership is a shocking disgrace and any perceived improvements since WW2 are, in fact, window dressing, as the futures of all people are now at risk due to subsequent corporate greed and governments are in the pockets of the corporates or worse, part of them.
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Window dressing. Yup. They have huge international conferences but never make any agreements that have any teeth. Here, they set up laws — without punitive damages attached. Companies engage in MASSIVE pollution and never, ever EVER have to pay the bill for the cleanup. Mostly, the messes don’t get cleaned up.
Everyone wants to “fix things,” but not if it costs money or a few votes or reduces “donations.” I think those donations are what other countries call “bribes.” That’s why I can’t see much hope. We really aren’t doing anything. Lots of words, lots of political babble — and zero results. We might not succeed if we try but we definitely WON’T succeed if we don’t try. It’s depressing and I spend a lot of time trying to not think about it unless it is staring me in the face. Even when we have money, we don’t use it to do what really needs doing. We make things look pretty in those parts of the state where wealthy votes live and the rest of us? Nothing. Zippo. Garry and I have been watching the “work” they are doing. I asked him: “Doesn’t it seem to you that they are doing a lot of work and getting nothing done? That they aren’t even trying to get anything done?”
“Just what I was thinking,” he said.
This world is going to be a terrible place. SOON.
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Hi Marilyn, I do the same as you. I don’t dwell on it and I do the little bit I can do. I visited a care home for the elderly last week Friday with my team (I head up my divisions Corporate Social Initiative committee). You could visibly see how our visit and interaction with the residence made a difference to them. Their eyes lost that dull look they get and they were animated by the time we left. We are going again to host a Christmas event. It is these small things that keep me grounded and give me hope in a small way.
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I feed birds and that really helps. It keeps me in touch with the wildlife that still exists. I try to stay mentally active. I’m physically pretty limited, but the brain is still working, though there are days when I wish it would just shut up already 😀 Good for you! I remember visiting Garry mother in the “home” and it was one of the most depressing sights I’d ever seen. They just leave them staring at a TV with nothing to engage them. I think I’d rather be dead.
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