The On-Off Switch

 I wrote a while back about someone throwing on the Climate Change Switch. It seemed as though we no longer got “normal” weather events. Instead, if it turned “warm”, the temperatures hit 95-100 instead of 80 – 85. If it “rained” the heavens opened up and we would get torrential downpours.  And now, we were so fortunate, with Ian barely passing us by, but leaving our area still pretty ok. But think Florida.

And yet, I observe still no concerted plan of action to combat Global Climate Change. It’s as though we know the Nazi’s are coming to invade us by boat, but we’re sitting around drinking our morning coffee, saying, “Oh they won’t be here for quite a long while. We have plenty of time. Have another cup of java.”

Are we really so captured by the fossil fuel rich owners that we have lost all sight of tomorrow? I understood, when the threat was 50-75 years away, that we would put off any immediate plans. But now, we seem not to understand that, not only are we destroying the futures of our grandchildren, but we may actually be destroying our own futures.

I am really old—87 and counting. I have already outlived all of my close relatives—grands, parents, siblings, aunts and uncles. Yeah, yeah, I’m that old. And each day, I look forward to all the little things that our lives offer us.  We sit by our pond with a nice, homemade cappuccino, and we toss some food out to our little Koi family swimming around our pond, Harriet, Nick and Nora. As they nibble away, I think, some day, not too far away, I won’t be here to toss those food pellets. And I won’t see that sun rise each morning, as I take its picture and thank the lovely morning for reappearing.

But I think also, that the sun will still arise each morning. And if the koi kids are lucky enough, someone new will sit on our bench and continue to toss out some food for them.  But then I begin thinking anew about what that changing climate will do to the entire area.  Will this area become too warm for humans to live here?  Or will the storms continue to intensify to the point that the area becomes unsafe?  And could I have a conversation with anyone important enough to actually do something to head off the worst of the possible forecasts? And might they actually take action that might preserve our environment?

And then I thought about that recent NASA program, in which they fired off a missile and caused it to collide with some vague asteroid wandering about up above us. But that was simply a test, wasn’t it?  But suppose there was an actual asteroid up there that was beaming towards us. But it might not strike us for a year. Would we do something to head it off? Well, Yes, we likely would. And why? Well, because the action we would have to take would not require us to change our attitude towards any money-producing entities. See, that’s the clue. If taking action to head off an approaching asteroid might require us to stop producing coal, or to cease production of gas-powered vehicles, then we would likely just open another bottle of nice wine and pretend that the disaster likely will not happen for such a long time, that we need not actually do anything.

See, it’s money that controls everything. Well, money and organized religion.  But in this case, money is the damaging entity.  And when I think about that, I begin to understand that humans are a deeply flawed species.  If there were actually a God up there somewhere, humans would be her biggest mistake. Although humans are full capable of acting to preserve the world around us, we are also so mentally flawed that we are as likely to avoid taking action as to actually do something intelligent. 

Think Vladimir Putin, or Donald Trump, or Adolph Hitler. Think Mitch McConnell, or Amy Coney Barrett, or Ron DeSantis, all deeply flawed humans, fully capable of acting to destroy humankind.  And why are all these deeply flawed, and evil humans in positions that allow them to prevent intelligent preventive actions by less flawed humans? Well, mainly because the not-so-deeply-flawed humans actually asked them to take charge of our world, ignoring their potential for permanent harm. Yep, we put them there folks. And now, we are being forced to sit around like dinosaurs, awaiting that fateful asteroid called Climate Change to bang into our little planet.  We could throw them all aside in that thing called an election. But will we?? Who knows?  Even the Shadow likely doesn’t know. Stay tuned, those election thingies are almost upon us again. We will see how stupid the remaining humans are.

 

Tri-Cataclysm

 We’re living in a weirdly dangerous world. I’m old—86 by at least one count—and I have never quite seen anything like this age we now inhabit. What the hell is going on?

1. COVID – perhaps the most widespread and deadliest disease the world has ever seen.  Well, maybe The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) during the 14^th century was worse, especially given the level of ignorance about disease that existed.  Yeah, it was bad then too, but in the 14^th century, we could blame it on actual ignorance, whereas now we have this stupidity thing we have to add in. Imagine 21^st century people yelling about their “freedom” being imposed upon, by requiring them to wear masks, and even, get vaccinated.  I imagine in the 14^th century, people would have accepted these restrictions happily.  When the alternative was death, people used to pay attention and do the right thing. I think of polio, smallpox, measles, etc.  All those diseases we eliminated because people got vaccinated.  What a concept, huh? Now, folks regard interventions as some sort of government plot to be resisted at all costs.

2. Climate Change – climate change may in fact be the most catastrophic human-caused event ever to occur on this planet. Although our science community has been warning us at least since the 1970s (that’s 50 years ago folks) that we needed to do something serious about constraining carbon emissions, we have largely ignored them, until now. And now, it seems less the underlying science than catastrophic wild fires, huge storms, flooding, droughts, each seemingly larger and more damaging than the last that has finally gotten our attention.  We humans seem not to learn about anything important until it smacks us across the face.  Even that cute little girl, Greta Thunberg, who has been yelling at us and warning us for several years now, is only now beginning to attract our attention.  She has been organizing school climate strikes since about 2018, when she was 15 years of age.  Think of that. At age 15, she was organizing for action to defeat climate change.  But, despite the attention she has received, it seems we really needed to be smacked across the face—the floods, wild fires, droughts are happily providing that slap. Now, we still need to observe carefully whether humans will also figure a way out of actual action to arrest climate catastrophe.  Real action around the globe is kind of like gun control in America. There are always arguments around actual corrective changes, without any actual changes taking place. And with climate, reducing carbon emissions requires us to radically alter how we manage to transport ourselves about, and how we produce energy. Those industries would rather “Keep on Truck’n” and so they will happily bribe political officialdom to allow just that.

3. Afghanistan (and other natural catastrophes) – We seemingly never actually learn anything from our past excursions into military disasters. Apparently America has never been really any good at this war thingie, except when it involves two big armies, at least one of which is European in origin. We were quite exceptional in that War of Independence, War of 1812, Civil War, World War I and World War II. Note that all involved actual formal armies that more or less understood war in the same terms. We succeeded by being better armed, and better organized.  But it seems, whenever we drift into a “conflict” between two foreign entities not of European origin, without reliance on conventional armies and conventional army strategies and tactics, we fumble around like teenagers at their first boy-girl party.  I’m thinking of, say, Korea, Vietnam, and the whole of the Middle East messiness.  In none of those did we ever manage to achieve the clear Winner and Peace Treaty thing.  We seem to have achieved a kind of stalemate in Korea, actual defeat in Vietnam, the first in our history, and then a retreat in the face of a likely defeat in our various Middle Eastern enterprises. At least the British, in India, achieved a kind of civilized and ultimately peaceful withdrawal—call it what you will. But they left with all their troops intact, and a reasonably civilized resulting governmental solution in its wake.   That would have been absolutely splendid in Afghanistan, but it was not to be. First the Brits, then the Russians, then finally the Americans tried to secure a stable, peaceful government there, but alas, none of us knew how to do that. Mainly, of course, neither do the Afghans. The Taliban taking over is just one more period in Afghan history in which one corrupt regime replaces another corrupt regime.  Exactly what we will all consider doing when this Taliban regime fails and the place falls into chaos once more, with catastrophic effects on surrounding countries, is anyone’s guess.  I understand that our corrupt republican party is now considering impeaching Joe Biden for his disastrous Afghan withdrawal, and to that, I reply . . . Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. You guys really have no class and no clue do you?  Taking advice again from that Giant Turd at MaraLago??

But I assume that we will go on, unless the republican party decides they prefer the Trump-Christian Taliban approach to government reorganization—revolution. Hopefully not, though.  I keep wondering when we will see a replacement party begin to take shape in America. See, we actually need two functioning parties to argue and to bring about intelligent changes to our approach to life.  Hey, George Will, why not return to Life and begin yelling for a new party?

But this TriCataclysm has really begun affecting life on earth.  It seems difficult at best to awaken each morning and smell the roses, and absorb the sunlight, and truly enjoy that first cup of espresso. Every joy is now tinged with these dark elements of potential disaster. I know, I know, it’s tough being 86 and trying to find happiness.  But, looking at and listening to Greta, it seems equally tough being 18 and trying to find happiness. She just has more energy to expend on that vital task.  Well, good luck Greta. You may save us after all, just don’t expect too much from we Americans. We seem to value money and that great Ponzi Scheme in the sky called organized Religion a bit more than rational thoughts about humanity. Keep on kiddo. We need more folks just like you Greta.

And on our overall theme, I came across an article on dinosaurs. Remember them? Well, think of us as modern dinosaurs. See below . . . or, if you prefer, just go have a second glass of wine. Ta ta.

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

And from the National Geographic (Dinosaur extinction facts and information | National Geographic)

One of the most well-known theories for the death of the dinosaurs is the Alvarez hypothesis, named after the father-and-son duo Luis and Walter Alvarez. In 1980, these two scientists proposed the notion that a meteor the size of a mountain slammed into Earth 66 million years ago, filling the atmosphere with gas, dust, and debris that drastically altered the climate.

Their key piece of evidence is an oddly high amount of the metal iridium in what’s known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene, or K-Pg, layer—the geologic boundary zone that seems to cap any known rock layers containing dinosaur fossils. Iridium is relatively rare in Earth's crust but is more abundant in stony meteorites, which led the Alvarezs to conclude that the mass extinction was caused by an extraterrestrial object. The theory gained even more steam when scientists were able to link the extinction event to a huge impact crater along the coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. At about 93 miles wide, the Chicxulub crater seems to be the right size and age to account for the dino die-off.

In 2016, scientists drilled a rock core inside the underwater part of Chicxulub, pulling up a sample stretching deep beneath the seabed. This rare peek inside the guts of the crater showed that the impact would have been powerful enough to send deadly amounts of vaporized rock and gases into the atmosphere, and that the effects would have persisted for years. And in 2019, paleontologists digging in North Dakota found a treasure trove of fossils extremely close to the K-Pg boundary, essentially capturing the remains of an entire ecosystem that existed shortly before the mass extinction. Tellingly, the fossil-bearing layers contain loads of tiny glass bits called tektites—likely blobs of melted rock kicked up by the impact that solidified in the atmosphere and then rained down over Earth.

Volcanic fury

However, other scientists maintain that the evidence for a massive meteor impact event is inconclusive, and that the more likely culprit may be Earth itself.

Ancient lava flows in India known as the Deccan Traps also seem to match nicely in time with the end of the Cretaceous, with massive outpourings of lava spewing forth between 60 and 65 million years ago. Today, the resulting volcanic rock covers nearly 200,000 square miles in layers that are in places more than 6,000 feet thick. Such a vast eruptive event would have choked the skies with carbon dioxide and other gases that would have dramatically changed Earth’s climate.

Proponents of this theory point to multiple clues that suggest volcanism is a better fit. For one, some studies show that Earth’s temperature was changing even before the proposed impact event. Other research has found evidence for mass die-offs much earlier than 66 million years ago, with some signs that dinosaurs in particular were already in a slow decline in the late Cretaceous. What’s more, volcanic activity is frequent on this planet and is a plausible culprit for other ancient extinctions, while giant meteor strikes are much more rare. This all makes sense, supporters say, if ongoing volcanic eruptions were the root cause of the world-wide K-Pg extinctions.

Why not both?

Increasingly, scientists trying to unravel this prehistoric mystery are seeing room for a combination of these ideas. It’s possible the dinosaurs were the unlucky recipients of a geologic one-two punch, with volcanism weakening ecosystems enough to make them vulnerable to an incoming meteor.

 

Burning Down the Planet

 I walk outside and I feel immediately like I am on some different planet. I have kept listening to them tell us about Climate Change, but mostly I guess I have been hearing what I want to hear; which is that, climate change is definitely happening, just not today. Yeah, ice sheets are melting, but I don’t live in the Arctic Circle, or Antarctica.  So, I appreciate what you are saying Greta, but right now I have to pour myself a nice glass of red wine.  Last Tango in Halifax is on and I am really hooked.

And then I catch a glimpse of an article in the Guardian about some town in the west sinking, as in sinking over 11 feet.  Yeah, a whole town is sinking. Why? Well, it seems they have been pulling water out of their underground reservoirs, and that water has not been replaced due to dry weather in the West. So, the entire structure underneath the town is falling down, causing the ground up above to also begin collapsing.  Who ever heard of such a thing, right?  Towns might drown, but that’s their own fault, right? They shouldn’t have built so close to the water. But collapsing into the soil beneath??? What the hell is that all about?

 And then we have all the western wild fires. I looked at a picture of the skyline from somewhere in San Francisco. And it was all red, and you couldn’t see very far. And I thought, God, this is way worse than looking out the window in LA during the 1950s.  That was smog, and we all knew what caused smog. Yeah, your dumbass car which had no decent exhaust system, so cars were practically belching smog out their tailpipe. But this picture was different. It somehow looked like the world was on fire.  And who could I blame??? Some dude smoking and then tossing his still-lit cigarette into the weeds??  OH, no, right, they were caused by Jewish Space Lasers. That dudette Marjorie Taylor Greens told us all about that.  And she must know right? I mean people voted her into Congress, so she must know these things.

Oh, and then I started reading about the weather in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver—110 to 116 degrees F. No, how is that possible? I’ve been to all those places and the temps never climb above, what 75??? I mean, they aren’t New Delhi in June, right??

So, what the hell is going on anyway? I guess I could cope were they to tell me that, since it was January (it isn’t) we should expect four feet of snow tomorrow.  I mean, I get that. So, I have to take my snow shovel tomorrow and really haul ass out there to dig some big time channels, so we could actually emerge from our house. But no. Instead, they are telling me about some unstable upper air that is likely to cause locally torrential rainfalls of maybe 12 inches or more. They weren’t sure, but maybe.  Everywhere I turn this summer, I see some cataclysmic weather event. It’s like someone turned a switch and suddenly climate change was turned on for good. Greta, did you turn that switch? I mean, warning us via the telly is one thing, but you wouldn’t just suddenly switch it on would you??

Part of my problem is I’m now really old . . . by any definition. And one characteristic of being really old is that lots of things now either depress me, or frighten the crap out of me.  And, trust me, this weather pattern is definitely one of those things.  I read about houses floating away due to some river flooding. I understand that we live in an old house—even older than me for god’s sake—and that extreme waterfall, like 5 inches of rain, will cause the basement to begin flooding. Once I had to spend nearly 11 hours in the basement vacuuming the water til it finally stopped coming in.  So, yeah excess rainfall brings me to the freaking out stage. I’d much rather shovel snow, than vacuum water.  Why? I don’t know.  I just really hate vacuuming water.  Maybe it’s cuz the snow just sits there, and then eventually it goes away when the sun shines on it and warms things a bit. Whereas the water coming into the basement gets things wet that shouldn’t be wet, and then they rot or smell. Or it shorts out electrical connections. So, with water in the basement, it’s a fight against time. You get the water out, or it will screw you big time in some way.  Now, to be fair, if we just had an empty cellar, or a crawl space, I doubtless would not care. But someone, a long time ago, decided to create a useful space down there, and so we adopted that space. We have a furnace, a freezer, a refrigerator, my artsy supplies, a washer and dryer. So lots of stuff. And so, extremely heavy rain freaks me out.  More so now that I’m really old.

But it isn’t just the fear of a big thunderstorm. I mean, periodically, summer produces thunderstorms, and occasionally, one could be really big.  No, it’s that this is the summer of our cataclysm. Climate change arrived with a bang.  And I’m thinking, OK, this is our World War IV. Apparently, when a human is born, part of the deal is that that human will have to live through some big time catastrophic event, probably more than one.  I’m not sure what it was like to be born into, say the 16^th century. Likely, as now, it mattered whether you were born into a family with lots of money, or into a family of slaves, or farm workers.  But everyone was likely to have to live through some period of awfulness.

So, let’s see. I was born in the 1930s. And what did we have then? Oh, yeah that Great Depression thingie. So much fun for my mom. And then we had that period when ordinary Germans ignored what a dude named Hitler was saying, and so they installed him as their leader, so he could go on to kill six million folks and cause the entire world to engage in that killing field called a World War.

And then suddenly that awful thing ended as I became a teenager, and we had that period called the 1950s.  Quiet, well aside from that kerfuffle in a far-off place called Korea.  To be fair, there was a lot of saber rattling, and lots of people yelling at one another—“if you don’t listen to me I might shoot off a big missile and blow you up!” But nobody did.

And so it went on, with shootemups here and there, but always limited. Oh yeah, hundreds of thousands of people were killed, but that’s just life in the Big City, huh? And then sometime during the 1970s, amidst the messiness of life in this World, folks called scientists began yelling that we needed to do something to reduce something called carbon emissions. If we didn’t, the global temperature would begin rising, and then the world would be at risk of cataclysmic failure. And the monied sets just guffawed and said, “oh crap those damned scientists are trying to get us to change our ways. And we ain’t gonna do that, cuz it would get in the way of our making money. And that ain’t gonna happen”.

And so, we did nothing, cuz the folks with the money control everything.  And now, 50 years later, ice sheets are melting, towns are collapsing, forests everywhere are burning down, making the problem worse. And yeah, the average temperatures are rising. So, apparently, the scientists were right, huh? But meanwhile, the Sacklers, and the Jeff Bezo’s, and the rest of the superwealthy are continuing to act in ways designed to destroy our world.  And then Portland, Oregon hits 115 degrees of summertime temperature, and forests are again burning down the world.

So, are we doing anything? Oh, I forgot, that group called the Republican Party decided to go into a permanent state of mental breakdown, by deciding to elect either the terminally stupid, or mentally unstable to its leadership.  And so we have Donald Trump, and Mitch McConnell, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Rudy Giuliani (yeah, he of the melting head) and others of that ilk, making believe they are actually 1936 Germany.  And they are looking for their own Adolph, or at least their own Benito Mussolini, so they can embark on the final destruction of America via the cataclysmic climate change event. So, it’s that “Decline and Fall of” thingie. Remember that? So much fun.

So, the rest of us get to just sit back and watch it all on the Telly, or maybe on our smartie phones.  Voting?? Well, no, that republican bunch are changing all the rules, so you won’t be able to vote. They do so hate it when people actually vote.  Ta ta folks. Enjoy this summer of our discontent. It may be our last. Or not. We’ll see.  Remember . . . 74 million people in America actually voted for Donald Trump. Let that sink in. Hahahahahahaha.