Well vacation is over and we just drove home from Wisconsin to Florida. The entire trek from Wisconsin to Florida we had a heat advisory. Living on Florida you expect it to be hot and wet this time of year. That is why we have an awful lot of people that live here only six months. When it is as hot in Illinois as it is in Florida for prolonged stretches you kind of take notice. Online I see many people stating that President Biden should declare a climate emergency. Yes, I agree that we are in a climate emergency but what would it accomplish if Biden declared it an emergency. Are people going to drive less? Are we all going to run out and buy electric cars? There lies the problem. Our lives depend on the burning of fossil fuels. I just drove from Wisconsin to Florida burning fossil fuel. We can’t expect Biden to take on the oil and coal companies all by himself when we voters won’t do it. It should start with us.
How long have we known that the planet was warming? As far back in the 1950s scientists knew that the oceans could not absorb the amount of carbon dioxide that we were putting into the atmosphere and by the 1980 much of the scientific community thought that it was something that needed immediate action from all of us. So I am 68 years old and basically we have known all my life that what we were spewing into the atmosphere was harmful to the planet. Most of my adult life there has been scientists that have been throwing up red flags that this is a real problem. Al Gore tried to make it a major campaign issue over 20 years ago and lost the election. He was right, it is just that people were not willing to listen. Much of the world is now listening but much of the United States is not. Here we are claiming to be the greatest country in the world and much of the country just turns its backs on the science of climate change. It is not like we haven’t been warned or it is just something new. Monash University in Australia put out a study that over 5 million people a year are victims of Climate Change. That is not just a few people. This is like its own pandemic. It is a global problem and if we are to consider ourselves a world leader these are the problems that we should be tackling. Not running away from.
Whenever there is a crisis and Climate change is a crisis you can always expect a quote for Lindsey Graham. His latest is he doesn’t want to be lectured about Climate Change that it would destroy the country’s economy. Now this attitude does not surprise me anymore. The Republican Party, and in particular Lindsey Graham, are not strangers to death on a large scale in the name of the economy. All you have to do is look at their Covid response and the number of lives that could have been saved to know that death is just part of the Republican platform. Money before lives. Profit today and the hell with tomorrow. New York City underwater? No problem, we will just make a new New York City farther inland. Just think of all the money large corporations will make building a new city. Who will foot the bill? Not the corporations that caused the problems. It will be the American Public. The State of Florida underwater? Well that means that there will be nice beachfront property farther north. You can say I am being ridiculous and you may be right but the most ridiculous thing is to ignore Climate Change.
I always wonder if politicians really do not believe in Climate Change or if this is just like cigarettes in the 60s and 70s. Many knew that cigarettes were bad for you but the Tobacco Industry had very powerful lobbyists that basically worked very hard to suppress the knowledge of how bad cigarettes were. We still haven’t gotten rid of cigarettes today even with all the evidence that is out there on how bad they are for you. Are we at the same place with fossil fuels? Are the Fossil Fuel companies lobbies so powerful that we may never totally get rid of fossil fuels? There is a ton of evidence what the burning of fossil fuels is doing to the planet. Why are we not listening? Why are so many politicians not listening? Is there just too much money out there? I have said many times that until we get all the money out of Washington we will never be able to solve our problems. Campaign donations are just a fancy way of bribing someone. An industry does not give money to a politician without wanting something in return. How many politicians do the Fossil Fuel companies own? What is the price tag on a Senator? By the looks of Senator Manchin from West Virginia it looks expensive so they must expect a lot back in return. It must have been a lot of money for him to betray his grandchildren’s future.
What are we leaving the next generation? From what I can tell we are leaving them a mess. Between guns killing our children to the climate killing their future we have not done a good job of looking out for their future. Even the Bible said suffer the children not. Children are suffering all over the world because too many of us have failed to act.
When did scientists first warn humanity about climate change? | Live Science
Climate Change Causes 5 Million Extra Deaths Per Year (webmd.com)
A Life on Our Planet - NOW (itmustbenow.com)
You are so spot on but unfortunately like you said greed outweighs life and our hands are tied until we can control politics and we have to start with the young politicians, they understand but we have to give them the power before their mind shifts to the money.
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