6 January 2022
If you peruse the pages of my websites, you’ll see that I’ve written extensively on three topics: climate change, the Pandemic, and guns. That ends here; I won’t write about any of them again, at least not for my website.
I didn’t expect anything I wrote to really change the course of things, but I thought adding my two cents to the wisdom and knowledge of others would be worth it. It wasn’t. If anything, we are in worse shape on all three issues than ever before, and I see no hope of anything getting better. As a people, we have screwed ourselves, and probably the rest of the world in the bargain.
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Update 13 August 2022: Okay, I lied. I have written about both climate change and guns this year. What I say below still applies.
Climate Change: The warming effects of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases have been recognized for over two centuries. At first, there was some consideration that global warming might be “a good thing,” shortening winters and making northern climes more inhabitable. There were experiments designed to take advantage of the knowledge, like spreading coal dust on glaciers to make them melt more quickly. As European cities choked to death under coal-polluted air, concern began to arise, but human optimism prevailed: we were smart enough to “fix it” any time we wanted. We probably could have – back then – but we didn’t.
A few climate scientists are still hopeful that we can stop – or at least, slow – the worst effects of climate change. Most have given up that hope. Even if all of our “science” could be applied to the problems, it’s probably too late. The reality is that politics and public feelings won’t let the “science” be applied. It would require too much of a change in life style, and would require too many “sacrifices.” With a majority of even the climate change believers thinking that they won’t be affected, personally, we will continue to talk while doing nothing useful.
Just last weekend, the television show “60 Minutes” had a long story on grapes. Because of climate change, many traditional wine grape-growing areas no longer produce quality crops, but areas farther north are now supporting grapes that produce just as good (sometimes, better) wine. It was presented as a “good news” story. The interviewer asked one softball question about whether the wine grower was concerned about the longer term effects of climate change. No, he wasn’t; there would always be areas where they could grow grapes.
What is there to worry about if we can always have good wine?
The latest
carbon dioxide weekly averages:
Dec. 26, 2021: 417.46 ppm
This time last year: 415.32ppm
1 Year Change: 2.14 ppm (0.51%)
10 years ago: 392.43ppm
Safe level: 350ppm
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The Pandemic: It’s been with us for two years, and likely will be around for many more. Hopefully, it won’t continue to be the major killer it has been to date, but will just be a chronic reminder – like the flu or the common cold – that, once again, we screwed up in a big way. That could change, but it won’t. It won’t, because half of the U. S. population (and many more around the world) refuse to follow the most basic requirements to stop its spread: get vaccinated, wear a mask when with other people, and quit joining every crowd you can find. There may be a few people who have legitimate medical reasons for not getting the vaccine. Everyone else refusing to protect others and themselves is criminally stupid – stupid for obvious reasons, criminal because they are contributing to deaths that shouldn’t have to happen.
I’ve had my shots, I wear a mask, and I seldom leave the house. I hope I don’t contract the covid virus, but I still might, thanks to all my neighbors who don’t give a shit about my health. To them, I say: I hope you all get sick and die soon, so the spread of the disease can be contained. Only then can the rest of us go back to living a normal life.
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Homicides by Guns: Every slaughter of innocent people by some gunner (with or without a known cause) used to be big news, and was always followed up by days of coverage of offered prayers and piles of proffered bouquets and teddy bears. Those events are so commonplace now, that you have to listen carefully to hear them mentioned once. Many U. S. cities are setting records for the number of homicides by firearms. (Here in the Portland, Oregon, area, 2021 was the bloodiest year ever, and we’ve already recorded a number of deaths by guns in 2022.) We have far more guns per capita than any other nation, and far more deaths by firearms than any other nation. Our response to more deaths by gunfire: buy more guns.
We glory in our Gun Culture, and resist every effort to cut back on the deaths. I live in hope that I’ll die of some normal old age cause, rather than being shot by one of my neighbors when I’m on my way to the supermarket. Some days, I wonder if it’s a vain hope.
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In recent years, there has been a lot of lip service given to the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee, the founding document of the Iroquois Confederacy:
“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”
Hell, we’ve shown clearly that – whether we’re talking about climate change, the covid virus, gun deaths, or any of the other major messes we’ve created - we don’t even care about the second and third generations!
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