At a Crossroads

Climate change protests, an impeachment inquiry and a court ruling judging a Prime Minister's actions illegal. All events unfolding in the past few weeks that may seem to be unrelated, but on closer inspection they are all bringing to a head issues that will have an enormous impact on the world's future.

Greta Thunberg, whom I never tire listening to, at an awards acceptance speech again points out the need for our action. She has been pivotal in inspiring the many climate change protests that have taken place over the past few Fridays.

As Greta said the solution to climate change will not be found in today's politics. Because today's politics, at least in the United States, is about furthering the influence, power and monetary advantages of a few select groups of people who have rallied behind a man who uses his office to enrich them and himself. But perhaps the people have had enough, we will see.

When a snatch and grab for power by a would be strongman was upended by the rule of law, a court ruling in the UK may remind us all what a true balance of power means.

Perhaps Michael said it best so many years ago.

Climate change is real. It is the words and actions of some politicians that are the hoax.

Rebirth

No, on this anniversary of 9/11 I am not going to do a traditional commemorative post. Instead I am going to discuss how we can make a difference to our futures. Because I can't think of a better way to honor those who fought so hard for life on that fateful day 18 years ago then for us to fight for our lives on this planet.

I know that the thought of extreme climate change can be overwhelming, that it might be easy to give up before we have even started to fight back. But this is the planet's 9/11 and we can do no less than those who lived and died on that day.

While we talk about alternative fuels being of importance to this fight we seem to have forgotten other possibilities. In this first video I would like to show you that even just one person can make a huge difference to his environment.

Now this next video may seem to be counter intuitive, but hear him through. There are so many things in the natural world that are interconnected that removing or adding something has an effect on the environment as whole. Trying to mimic nature may help to return things to the original balance, which may help with climate change.

Sometimes thinking outside the box isn't such a bad thing.

Something Different

Why does someone pick up a gun, walk into a movie theater, a cafe, or any other place with a large gathering of people with the intent to kill as many people as they can? It's a question that is asked after every new mass shooting. In some cases the shooters were bullied in school, in others the shooters are following a hateful ideology of a group they identify with, or there has been some traumatic incident in their lives that have pushed them over the edge.

Why do people join a group like ISIS? In some cases they are following what they perceive is a greater cause than themselves. But it is more than that, as they are quite ready to use violence against innocent people to achieve it, "infidel" or Muslim.

Why is there an addiction crisis, whether to drugs or alcohol? This doesn't just affect those who have experienced a serious medical event, but also those who have experienced a serious mental one.

There may be an underlying connection. Something that is driving people to act out in ways that are not just self destroying but harmful to others.

While the vast majority of people do not act out in the ways mentioned above, there are still those who may suffer the same malady in silence. I suspect the correlation between the above behaviors is loneliness. For many the antidote is to find a place they belong, not always wisely, or to self medicate. I know it may seem simplistic, but loneliness is a huge problem. More so than we may realize. Remember all of those virgins offered to the ISIS fighters?

What is the antidote to loneliness?

So how did one of the happiest countries in the world get that way?  (This video was recorded when they ranked number one, in 2019 they were number two.  Finland displaced them.) 

I'm guessing that the United States could learn a thing or two from them.  No, I didn't put that video up just to spite you know who...who shall remain nameless in this post. 

Carrying Capacity

I am reading a book, no surprise there. The book is “The Uninhabitable Earth”, by David Wallace-Wells, a columnist at New York magazine. As the title suggests it is about what the effects of climate change could mean for us. I say “could” because despite the fact that the book is rather alarming reading there is still the possibility that we can affect how the end of this story turns out.

The Guardian had a nice review:

The Uninhabitable Earth

One of the issues Mr. Wallace-Wells touches upon is hunger. As our climate changes we will find that our ability to feed ourselves will be impaired due to the effects of things like drought. While many of the world's breadbasket areas will be affected detrimentally northern areas in Canada and Russia will see temperatures more conducive to growing crops, The catch, though, is that this land is not as fertile. So the yields will not be as high. Then, of course, there is the rather unnerving possibility of having to look to Russia for food. But that is a subject for a different kind of post.

So, even as our population grows our ability to increase our food supply may very well be limited by climate change.

How many people can Earth support? This video was made in 2015 and at that time the world's population was estimated at 7.2 billion. Today in 2019 the estimate is 7.7 billion. In 2050 the estimated world population will be 9.7 billion.  While his numbers may be questionable it is still an interesting overview.

The Bigger Picture

There were any number of current events I could post about this week; Donald Trump and his latest obnoxious, ill informed tweeting, Iran and it's snatching of oil tankers in a bid for attention, the horrifying story of a man granted temporary admittance to the United States only to say a final farewell to his dying daughter.

But I thought it might be time to remind people, again, of how fragile our life on this planet is. Instead of the constant fighting and sowing of hatred we should be taking each day as a blessing and working together, because we really don't know what the future will hold for our civilization.

I ran across this Ted talk given by Stephen Patranek. He did this one a number of years ago, but what's rather interesting is how some of this may be more of a danger now. I wonder if he would change the order of his list.

Anyway, here is his talk on “The 8 Ways the World Could End”. If you've got a rainy day, like I have, settle in and maybe rethink what is really important in your life.

Oh, one more thing...

Imagination

Once upon a time in a long ago land a group of people dared to imagine a world where everyone had the freedom to live their lives as they chose. It was one of the most significant and creative endeavors ever attempted.  It is still a work in progress today.

While we argue among ourselves and focus on our divisions we miss the whole point of that endeavor, which was to create a better world for ourselves and those who would join us, either as new citizens of our country, or as representatives of a democratic set of ideals in their home countries.

It was to create hope for a world that was in many places shrouded in darkness.

In 2008 J.K. Rowling gave the commencement address at Harvard. Her words are a reminder of the power that is within all of us, if we only imagine.

Happy 4^th of July everyone!

Us

Just a few days ago we marked the anniversary of D-Day. We fought for something then, something that was bigger than any of us, the right of everyone to live free of persecution because of who they were.

Then recently there was a mass protest in Hong Kong against what people there perceive as China's erosion of their political freedoms. They too were trying to fight for something bigger than themselves.

Striving, struggling, and fighting to make this world a better place was who we were. We didn't become a great country just because our economy was large, it was because we cared enough to fight for those less fortunate, even if it meant we fought ourselves. We would have been on the side of those protesters in Hong Kong, just like we would have helped the people who made their way to our shores.

The young woman in this video clip said she would have been a different person if she had stayed in Syria, she would have been a different person if she had been born here. It was because of the hurdles she overcame to get here and the struggle to adjust to life in America that she became the strong,  confident young woman who now has dreams she never envisioned before.  We should be proud to call her one of us.

Donald Trump and his followers are not who we are. They are an aberration that must and will pass. I believe, as one of my favorite singers says, in us.