World War End

I have been alive a long time by almost any count. I still remember the beginning of that first war I remember. No, not World War I. That was my granfolks war.  Yeah, they watched it, although to my knowledge, none of them were ever engaged within it.  No, it was World War II, beginning with that Pearl Harbor thing, you know, when our enemies dropped all those bombs all over our bases in Hawaii. Yeah, I remember that one.

And then we entered what became World War III, the war without endings.  Yeah, it began in 1950, soon after WW II ended. Koreans started shooting at one another and, of course, we had to take Sides. Then, vaguely after that seemed to want to end, The Vietnamese began shooting at one another, and, again, of course we had to take sides. And that one went on for years. But then, relatively unnoticed it would seem, people had been shooting at one another in that place called The Middle East, for years. And that has never really stopped. As soon as one group stops shooting there is a waiting line for the next group to begin shooting.  Yeah, turns out that Humans just really like killing one another. Think on that six-year old who went to school recently and just shot his teacher. Yeah, humans learn really early. Apparently, the Bible tells us that “Thou Shalt Kill” in any way we can.

And so, folks have been shooting up the planet almost ever since I came into being in 1934.

And now, we are beginning to notice, when we turn our attention away from people killing people that is, that we collectively have introduced what we might call the War that ends all Wars – Global Climate Change. Only, now it is US against The World. Yeah, we are now engaged in a war being waged by our planet, because we have been too stupid to take action to prevent it.  Apparently, at least 70 years ago, our scientists have been telling us that, unless we reduce our carbon emissions, our global climate will change and may well begin killing us all.  But they were predicting potential disaster many years in our future, and, whenever we do that, humans say, “yeah sure, but just not now”. And, so, predictably, we have been ignoring their advice to reduce carbon emissions.

So, now we are approaching that 2-degree temperature rise that predicts a cataclysmic climate change. Global warming will give rise to more extremes in all kinds of weather—droughts, catastrophic rainstorms, ice-free arctic zones, giving us even more wildass weather.  They are now coming up with new terms—Bomb Cyclones, atmospheric rivers. And many of the folks who produce our food are beginning to experience the worst of their predictions. California has been hit by both serious droughts leading to wildfires, followed by rainstorms leaving behind rivers overflowing everywhere.

And we no longer just get rainstorms—you know, those cloudy days when rain falls for a few hours, leaving behind an inch of water. No, now, it rains for a few hours and leaves behind 3-5 inches of water, which floods many areas, accompanied by wildass winds. Yeah, much of our weather now seems intent on destruction.  

Now you might imagine that all this catastrophic weather might provoke our industrial and our government leaders to sit down and prescribe some serious changes to prevent even more destruction. But instead, we have industrial leaders mounting serious charade campaigns to misinform the public. And then, just to follow suit, the America people voted to elect even more republicans into office. How does that change things? Well, republicans are now opposed to government. Yeah, folks elect republicans explicitly so that our government will cease functioning.  And that Kevin McCarthy charade just illustrated the point beautifully.  Yeah, Kevin basically gave away the candy store in order to head up the group that hates government. So what you say? Well, what that means is that, while our industrial leaders continue lying to us, in order that they can continue doing nothing, now our government will be too dysfunctional to do anything either. And so, global climate change will continue unhindered, and even accelerated by humans.  Yeah, aren’t we proud folks? And I was just reading about Norway which is achieving zero carbon emissions, while we piss away any chance of emulating their responsible behavior.

And so, our war with ourselves continues unabated. Aren’t we proud? But, just remember, there is no bogeyman enemy in this war, folks. We are our own enemies. And that is why this is perhaps our last war. So play on. It may not be long.