worried
Many times I think that most humans are not fit to run a whole planet. They get all their priorities wrong and are so bad at seeing the big picture. They seem to care more about the present as opposed to the future, never wanting to compromise their present comfort for the good of future generations. They take it for granted that their environment is intrinsically a part of them but have such a hard time realizing that they are a part of their environment.
Today I cried watching the weather channel. They've been saying there have been so many hurricanes this year that they've almost gone through the alphabet trying to name them and that the waters where the storms form are warmer than average, contributing to the turbulence in the area. The rain has been coming up the coast and October so far has not been cold and crisp but wet and humid... I was crying and yelling curses in my head at all the people, including myself, who either do not care enough or do not believe anything bad could really happen.
I mean, we can be bloody idiots. No one will care, for goodness' sake, if the weathermen say that a temperature a degree warmer than usual could have a negative impact on the soil or on the temperature of the water a thousand miles away. Why is no one realizing that a warmer temperature could mean the obliteration of all the things that we hold so unconsciously dear? Crisp fall days and frozen winters, Christmas snow and January ice on the windows, mild blooming springs and summers that are hot but not unbearably, blisteringly so?
Everyone is quick to talk about the Economic Impact and the Political Outcome but no one is appealing to the natural sensitivities of the people who could fix things. A warmer temperature - I cannot bear the idea of spring rain on Christmas day, or of humid sticky Octobers - tank tops on Halloween or sandals on Thanksgiving? Sure, people do not always consciously think that their climate is unalterably a part of themselves, but it is, and unconsciously people hold it so very dear.
Very often, I just feel like whacking people over the head with something heavy and blunt. Humans are so selfish. We want our own precious comfort and do not want to accept any responsibility. We deny things and drive our cars and think that the greenhouse gases are invisible so they're not real and only worry about how much the gas costs, not how much it is polluting. And the politicians all care about the politics of oil, and they must keep polluting, because think of how much the economy would suffer if we had no pollution!
And if someone says something else, that we must see the big picture, and fix things, he may not be taken seriously, but written off as a too-liberal environmentalist, and what in the world will make people listen?, and I am so scared that we will wreck the world, this achingly beautiful world of perfect precarious balance, with the sacred cycle of the seasons... And so I cry when I watch the weather channel, and hide and pretend nothing is real, and long that we were in the 17-1800s instead, and that the people with power had had some foresight and seen what starting to burn coal sometimes would lead to...
And I think that maybe some art is the answer, I mean, I am no politician but I do plan on being a writer, so maybe I could do what I do and write a book, and scare the people into caring... Like 1984 and Brave New World can scare people away from certain ideas about government and society, use words to paint a bleak and frightening empty world whose image conjured between the covers will scare the hell out of everyone who reads it, and this giant shock will shake them out of apathy, but it would have to be marketable, and popular, so the average person would read it. I've been thinking for a long time, and thinking that eventually I will have to take some responsibility, because I cannot love something and watch it die without saving it. And it would have to show reason, and be believable, so absolutely frighteningly believable, and I have to absolutely have to make people care.
Today I cried watching the weather channel. They've been saying there have been so many hurricanes this year that they've almost gone through the alphabet trying to name them and that the waters where the storms form are warmer than average, contributing to the turbulence in the area. The rain has been coming up the coast and October so far has not been cold and crisp but wet and humid... I was crying and yelling curses in my head at all the people, including myself, who either do not care enough or do not believe anything bad could really happen.
I mean, we can be bloody idiots. No one will care, for goodness' sake, if the weathermen say that a temperature a degree warmer than usual could have a negative impact on the soil or on the temperature of the water a thousand miles away. Why is no one realizing that a warmer temperature could mean the obliteration of all the things that we hold so unconsciously dear? Crisp fall days and frozen winters, Christmas snow and January ice on the windows, mild blooming springs and summers that are hot but not unbearably, blisteringly so?
Everyone is quick to talk about the Economic Impact and the Political Outcome but no one is appealing to the natural sensitivities of the people who could fix things. A warmer temperature - I cannot bear the idea of spring rain on Christmas day, or of humid sticky Octobers - tank tops on Halloween or sandals on Thanksgiving? Sure, people do not always consciously think that their climate is unalterably a part of themselves, but it is, and unconsciously people hold it so very dear.
Very often, I just feel like whacking people over the head with something heavy and blunt. Humans are so selfish. We want our own precious comfort and do not want to accept any responsibility. We deny things and drive our cars and think that the greenhouse gases are invisible so they're not real and only worry about how much the gas costs, not how much it is polluting. And the politicians all care about the politics of oil, and they must keep polluting, because think of how much the economy would suffer if we had no pollution!
And if someone says something else, that we must see the big picture, and fix things, he may not be taken seriously, but written off as a too-liberal environmentalist, and what in the world will make people listen?, and I am so scared that we will wreck the world, this achingly beautiful world of perfect precarious balance, with the sacred cycle of the seasons... And so I cry when I watch the weather channel, and hide and pretend nothing is real, and long that we were in the 17-1800s instead, and that the people with power had had some foresight and seen what starting to burn coal sometimes would lead to...
And I think that maybe some art is the answer, I mean, I am no politician but I do plan on being a writer, so maybe I could do what I do and write a book, and scare the people into caring... Like 1984 and Brave New World can scare people away from certain ideas about government and society, use words to paint a bleak and frightening empty world whose image conjured between the covers will scare the hell out of everyone who reads it, and this giant shock will shake them out of apathy, but it would have to be marketable, and popular, so the average person would read it. I've been thinking for a long time, and thinking that eventually I will have to take some responsibility, because I cannot love something and watch it die without saving it. And it would have to show reason, and be believable, so absolutely frighteningly believable, and I have to absolutely have to make people care.
posted by Laura at 7:21 PM
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