I can easily recall James Inhofe {repub senator of Oklahoma} bringing snow onto the Senate floor. Somehow he was suggesting that climate change couldn’t be real because of the current cold, which ‘should be’ impossible. I’d be terrible in politics, I really would—it amazes me how polite and gracious some people can be in the face of such ignorance.
I accept the possibility that he could have been one of the many faces of ‘don’t panic; not because there’s no reason to, but it would be inconvenient’ called upon to pacify the masses. Whether or not this is worse, I’m unsure—regardless, the level of shortsightedness is too much for me.
Climate change isn’t only about the planet heating up, Senator, it’s about imbalance as we’ve consumed or destroyed elements of this planet that have existed for thousands of years. Everything we carelessly harvested—either by digging great tunnels or creating pumping rigs—was here long before we were. With the exception of us and few other beings on this planet, all of life has it’s value and part to play for the overall health of Earth.
Years ago people started talking about how Earth would take care of itself, would heal from our devastation—somehow I got the impression that some people believe we’re capable of killing this massive life beneath our feet. What is ‘there is no planet B’? Much of this devastating winter weather is caused by Mumma Earth stretching her power and rebalancing—we’ll all die from natural disasters long before she’s ever taken down by our profit motivated destructiveness.
That’s always been a comfort to me because I don’t like that some people believe we live on a rock floating in space or a magic marble capable of sustaining life. I believe that Earth is our wise and patient mother—for a long time she allowed our mistakes because we were learning and growing. A frighteningly large percent of the human population isn’t learning and growing anymore, their mistakes aren’t ignorant errors—they are gambles. How many humans will risk adding to pollution or imbalance because they are betting they won’t have to live with the consequences?
