As we sit in limbo awaiting some actual action over the failed coup attempt, as the supporters of the failed attempt install their true believers into positions of power with the ability to skew any election results or outright overturn the will of the citizens, there are a few other issues at play.
As I have said before climate change is real and accelerating. Our models are the very best we can make, but we do not fully understand the climate and global ecosystem, which makes our models have missing variables. They can only be, at best, partly accurate, and we must adjust them going forward as we learn more. Yet with only our eyes and awareness we can see many hurdles, just this year, which will cause us trouble.
For decades the wealthy corporate population has insulated itself from the problems we all face. Even now they believe they can insulate themselves from climate change. Sitting before the Supreme Court right now are cases which might strip all authority and ability of the EPA from doing its job. If that case is decided along the partisan lines of which the modern court seems to be made up, then they will side with the corporation’s ability to make more money at the common citizens expense.
The only way for humanity to survive the shifting climate is by co-operation, not by competition. Our economic system, capitalism, is designed for competition. Further, the nations of the world are all competing with each other for “business”, which really amounts to fighting over resources and profits.
So, I do not expect much from humanity in this venture. Right now, people are screaming about gas prices, because our lives have become so dependent on them that you cannot survive in our society without enough. Yet rather than make difficult life changes to lower our personal need for fossil fuels we say, “fill er up”.
We commute long distances to work despite knowing that we need to cut back on fossil fuel. We plan vacations, flying about the globe, for our amusement, despite any effect on our CO2 issue. We buy products online, then shipped around the globe to us, despite any effect on our CO2. We take cruises for no other reason than our personal happiness. Oh yes, and we wage war, burning precious resources, destroying others and many human lives all to acquire another nation’s resources.
We are a world of Nero’s, fiddling while the wildfires rage and the floods ravage.
We are all accustomed to these things as it has been that way for a long time, all of my life certainly, and far beyond that. Our use of fossil fuels and they’re by products have only increased, alongside our population. I suspect the wealthy think that wealth can shield themselves from the consequences of climate change, so they continue to strive for ever more personal profit. To a minor extent they are correct. When food prices rise, it is not much of an issue for the wealthy, however when food prices turn to food scarcity that line won’t hold. Even less so when it becomes water which is scarce.
Understand that this year we have problems on every front in food production. The lack of water in the west will cause about 30% less crops planted, and this does not account for crop loss due to storms or drought. Lake Mead continues to drop by inches every day, the extent of the water loss is remarkable. Some is due to a withholding from the reservoir above it, part is due to usage even with water restrictions, and most of it is raw evaporation in the heat wave in the west and heartlands.
I found a screaming eagle’s vet who has been tracking, on film, the rapid disintegration of the Lake Mead reservoir. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, this man’s film is shocking, and worth at least several thousand words. Here is the link on Youtube.
If you do not know, “Lake Mead provides water to the states of Arizona, California, and Nevada as well as some of Mexico, providing sustenance to nearly 20 million people and large areas of farmland.” -Wiki Northern Mexico is also without adequate water.
Water affects everything. 3000 head of cattle dropped dead from the intense heat in Kansas, and we can expect more of this kind of thing. The warmer atmosphere allows it to hold more water, making the atmosphere thirsty. Where the heat and sun rule, the water evaporates, often only to condense into powerful thunderstorms which reek damage and often flood other areas.
It is flood or drought pretty much the globe over, with the worst being flash flood after drought washing away the very topsoil we need to farm. We may even see a repeat of “The great dust bowl” not due to over farming, but to droughts and flash droughts. Yet the worst is that this is global. Pakistan is a leader in rice exports worldwide, but for the first time ever it will not export. Due to both droughts, heat, and flooding, they have lost too much to export. India has similar issues, as does China, as does Europe, as does Africa, as does South America, as does Australia, as does Mexico and Central America. Russia and Ukraine at war has added even more stress to our global food markets.
Each of these weather events has a cost associated with it. Perhaps it is in damages to homes and towns, perhaps it is a loss of production, perhaps it is even loss of lives. As the IPCC has said repeatedly, “weather will continue to increase in both intensity and in frequency”. So more of everything, more often, all the time. When it rains or snows, it is too much, or too early, or too little too late.
All of these costs will only add stress to our democratic system, and we infight over trivialities instead. Each group is concerned only for their rights, that they should be upheld, and as we all fight for our rights, we overlook the reality that any and all rights depend on the right to life. Not a right to the life of the unborn, but the right for all the living citizens to live, breathe, eat, drink, and work toward their own happiness.
If we cannot come together for our mutual survival, then we will fight over the scraps and descend into barbarism. I ask you; does it not look like we are already doing just that? Do we not resemble rats all fighting over the scraps?
With a lot of hard work and massive changes to our global societies might be able to survive climate change, if we all worked together for the common good.
I do not think the wealthy elites have any intention of doing that. I suspect they will do as they always have, hoard more for themselves and to hell with any “common good”. Perhaps they believe that a failure to act will depopulate the planet enough that our emissions drop to acceptable levels, and they, the wealthy will emerge unscathed by the climate.
Soon it won’t be able to generate power which will affect millions of people. Too much heat, too little water, and then inadequate electricity will have a grim effect on millions of Americans. We need to start acting to mitigate and prepare for what’s coming. This is barely the beginning, and things won’t improve quickly no matter what we do, so the longer we delay action the worse it all will get.
No governmental system on Earth was designed with such a global threat in mind, and no government is fully prepared for what is coming. Since I do not expect the governments of our world to rise to the occasion because they all want to remain in competition, we will be left to our own devices on a local or even personal level.
Thusly each person must look at their own personal circumstance and do whatever they can to prepare for increased food prices, food shortages, and water shortages, and increased prices for energy of all types. Try to understand that water affects nearly everything, and we will have too much or not enough going forward, and that is not potable water. Please do your best to prepare for yourself and those near and dear to you and encourage your neighbors to do the same. In this way you will build some resiliency in your family and community.
Truly, I wish you luck. We are all going to need it sooner than we thought.
Splinters from a fractured mind 