Sometimes, when I hear the words “climate change,” I laugh. I laugh not because climate change is funny; it’s the unfunniest topic of all.
I laugh because some people choose to ignore what’s happening right in front of their noses. That is part of the humor in a true story brother-in-law Kurt told me years ago.
One scorching summer afternoon, Kurt was sitting sipping a beer at Rumor’s Bar south of Rice. The others at the bar were tossing off remarks about the blistering weather.
“I bet we’re gonna get a drought,” said one.
“Oh yeah, you can say that again,” said another. “Hasn’t been this hot and dry in a long time. Remember the drought of ‘86, or was it ’87? Terrible.”
That conversation went on and on, Kurt recalled. Sure enough, drought’s a-comin’!
Meantime, Kurt was staring at the large window. It was being virtually sandblasted by furious dust-filled gusts of dry wind. Bits of dry sticks and dead brush like tumbleweeds were being whipped against the windows, like a scene from a desert cowboy movie.
“Yep, we’re headin’ for a drought” someone repeated.
Finally, an exasperated Kurt blurted out loudly to the dire forecasters.
“Drought?” Kurt asked. “You say we’re headin’ for a drought?”
Sudsy nods all around. Kurt extended his right arm, pointing to the windows.
“Look!” he said.
Nursing their beers, they raised their heads, turning wide-eyed to the window.
“Drought coming, you say?!” Kurt shouted. “Duh! We’re IN it!”
During that same week, there were burning bans, heat advisories and reports of drooping cattle, wilting crops. Those people were not paying attention, oblivious to the drought already surrounding them.
In that sense, they remind me of the deniers of climate-change/global warming. We’re in it, but some don’t see it. Unlike those bar patrons who at least predicted drought, the climate deniers, blind to the future, refuse to see disaster coming. Global warming, they scowl, is an old hippy notion; it’s a socialist/communist plot against American capitalism; it’s a hoax concocted by that liberal-radical Al Gore who made a movie about it just to scare people and make money; and, “By the way,” they often crow, “If the planet is warming up, how come it was 40 below the other day?”
Among the naysayers are those blinded by their wealth, including carbon-fuel tycoons, who think oh well, if doom’s on the way, we’ll build our fortresses on mountain sides or live in air-conditioned Manhattan towers far above the soggy strife. The Big Apple will become a neo-Venice where the tower residents can be rowed in spiffy gondolas from place to place. Floating restaurants? And if worse comes to worse, they can always buy tickets to another planet. Ah, such a comforting fantasy.
Meantime, back here down on earth, back on Planet Reality, climate warming is an ugly fact glaring us in the face. Glaciers are melting rapidly; animal species are slipping into extinction (human species not far behind), record storms and rampant fires are becoming more destructive, the Amazon forest is burning constantly, droughts and/or floods are causing losses in food production and resultant starvation. It’s already happening; we’re in it. Alas, there are none so blind as they who will not see.
The future is terrifying because as we know (or should know), climate change can cause and/or make worse overcrowding, land disputes, famines, unemployment, waves of displaced people, dictatorships, hatreds, deepening prejudices and wars.
We need an American leader who understands what is happening and who can inspire and motivate all of us, everywhere, to help restore this planet’s health – that is, if the damage is even reversible. That leader is obviously not the Denier-in-Chief who now occupies the White House.
There is that awful, nagging question: Is it too late? Precious time is ticking away, options running out. Join the fight against global warming. A vital part of that fight is never ever to vote for any political ostrich who is a climate-change denier.
