It was so good April 29 to see reports of so many people in so many cities marching for climate justice, speaking up against the forces of human-caused global warming.
The marches were dubbed, collectively, the “People’s Climate March.”
It’s almost inconceivable there are still some stubborn people who insist man-made climate change is a “hoax.” Their arguments are larded with illogical conclusions, and they tend to ignore scientific evidence with a kind of gleeful scorn.
Thankfully, most of the world does believe human activities are causing global warming that could transform this fragile Earth into a series of ongoing catastrophes in the not-too-distant future: rising sea levels, lowlands underwater, extreme weather, shrinking habitable land, crop failures, starvation, strife, resource scarcities causing skirmishes, wars and every variety of pain and suffering.
The April 29 marchers were trying to bring attention to President Donald Trump’s promise to dump all kinds of environmental laws and regulations – those against strip-mining, oil-drilling, emissions from vehicles, pollution caused by coal-burning power plants and more. The demonstrators are also speaking out loudly and clearly against Trump’s antagonism toward the Paris Agreement signed by 195 nations and dedicated to the reduction of greenhouse gases.
If Trump and the science-deniers in the U.S. Congress get their way, limits on greenhouse-gas emissions will be shredded, and advances toward clean-energy technologies achieved during the Obama years will be gutted. In other words, America as a leader of clean, renewable energy will be seriously set back. At least, that’s what’s been threatened.
However, let’s not despair. It is possible Trump will have another day of dawning during which he realizes fossil fuels and climate change are interconnected and very complicated, the way he came to the startling conclusion that health care is complicated. Perhaps we can hope Trump will do a pull-back or complete reversal on climate change, just as he’s had a change of heart about so many of his blustering threats and promises he made in his campaign: the Wall, the North American Free-Trade Agreement, China as currency manipulator and job-robber, his warm regard for Vladimir Putin as a “strong leader,” his regard for crackpot advisor Stephen Bannon, to name just some.
There are those among us who are not disappointed but, instead, elated Trump and some of his staff have backed off from the folly of most of their campaign promises. We can do nicely – much better – without those ill-considered promises being put into action, thank you.
By the time the year is over, Trump will probably realize – with nudges from his daughter and son-in-law, or court decisions – that man-made global warming is the most dire threat, along with nuclear war, that this planet faces. Future generations, today’s children and their children and grandchildren, will be the ones who suffer most, if they survive at all.
In Washington, D.C. at the “People’s Climate March,” tens of thousands of marchers of every age and walk of life braved a near-record hot day (90-plus degrees) to express their viewpoints. Many thousands marched in other cities, too.
Some of their clever signs and banners carried messages like these:
“May the Forest be with You.”
“Make Earth Great Again.”
“Good Planets are Hard to Find.”
“We Want a Leader, not a Creepy Tweeter!”
“There is No Plan(et) B.”
“Keep Your Corporate Hands Off Our Public Lands.”
These good people, with widespread encouragement, will continue to march and to speak up for climate justice. What’s more, let’s be gung-ho optimistic that truth will triumph, that the seekers of climate justice will be heard and heeded before it’s too late, despite the science-deniers so eager to give free reign to polluters and plunderers.
There are many good online resources dedicated to learning about climate change and related environmental issues. A great place to start is the website of the Sierra Club at sierraclub.org.
