I’m not sure how to use this site or even what happens to my words when I put them down here. I just know that for many of my 71 years I have put my thoughts in writing, sharing them with no one. It’s always interesting to look back at what I was thinking years or even decades ago, but isn’t the purpose of writing to share thoughts, thoughts that you have distilled and organized in a way impossible in oral conversation, with another human being? So, at some point, I will take the plunge and expose myself here; my opinions, including my opinion about what comprises good writing, will be out there, for all to see.
As a widower of slightly over a year, I’d like to share my feelings of grief and loss and recovery. My experiences during my 22 years as a school psychologist in the Baltimore City Public Schools are another area I’d like to cover. Sometimes my muse inspires me to just write about the vagaries of life, like “how can one zucchini plant produce so many squash?” But the thing I want to share my thoughts about the most is climate change.
Climate change, while often relegated to a spot far down the list of things that voters, and hence politicians, care about, is the most pressing issue of our time. It dwarfs terrorism, health care, immigration, the economy or any thing else you might dream up. It will eventually impact every one of us. A big part of the problem is that “us” is really “them”-future generations. Conservatives ridicule those who would compare what is happening to World War II. But the fact of the matter is more people are going to die as a result of a too rapidly warming planet than died in both world wars. That we may never meet those people doesn’t matter. They are the ones who will determine how we will be remembered.
I will not enter into a debate about the existence of anthropogenic global warming. Previous efforts to talk rationally with climate deniers usually ended with them insulting me then blocking me. I am not interested in the opinions of unqualified “experts” funded by right wing think tanks, who in turn are funded by the petroleum industry. If 97 doctors tell me that my lungs are precancerous and that I need to quit smoking and three tell me there’s no problem and no reason to change my behavior, I can go with the majority or I can cast doubt on 97 professionals and accuse them of collaborating to make me give up something I enjoy for their own malevolent ends.
Recently, a denier sent me an article he said proved that climate change was a hoax. The article was about the climate three million years ago and how carbon dioxide concentrations in the air were similar to what we have now. I saw nothing in the article that refuted current theory, but it did make me think. If this guy believes scientists who tell him what was happening three million years ago, why doesn’t he believe the ones who are telling him what’s happening today? It is cherry picking data to defend an indefensible position and it’s one of many stupid things climate deniers do to try to fit reality with their warped view of the world. They will go to remarkable lengths to maintain their belief that over a billion cars spewing their toxic fumes into the air all over the planet has no effect on the atmosphere. They are the ones who will not believe until it is too late and they cannot become distractions from the important work at hand. No matter how many snowballs Jim Inhofe throws in the halls of congress, this shit is real.
Out Of My Head 