climate change

The Wrong Direction

Fandango11 Comments

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It was a very rainy Sunday where we live, so my wife and I searched for a lightweight movie to watch and we finally settled on “The American President,” starring Michael Douglas and Annette Benning.

The movie was entertaining and enjoyable in a rainy Sunday afternoon kind of way. But what struck me most about this 1995 movie is that the Michael Douglas’ character, the President, was trying to push gun control legislation through Congress. And Annette Benning’s character, a lobbyist, was trying to get legislation passed to reduce carbon emission levels in order to combat global warming and climate change.

So we are, almost a quarter of a century later, and our Congress has not only not made any progress in either of these critical issues, but since Donald Trump was elected President, we’re actually moving in the wrong direction.

Our lawmakers should be ashamed of themselves.

Theater of the Absurd

Fandango16 Comments

FFA7F033-CE03-40EA-AC3E-BD5D1ACE0710“Honestly,” Larry said, “we are experiencing a real-life theater of the absurd.”

“A real life what?” Mark asked.

“You know, it’s theater in which standard or naturalistic conventions of plot, characterization, and thematic structure are ignored or distorted in order to convey the irrational nature of reality and the essential isolation of humanity in a senseless world,” Larry explained.

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mark said.

“Our president participating in a golden shower in Moscow is what I’m talking about,” Larry said. “Our president as a barrier standing in the way of doing anything to combat climate change is what I’m talking about. Our president creating chaos….”

“It’s a good thing we have such a solid friendship, Larry,” Mark interrupted, “because I think you’re starting to lose it.”

“Don’t you get it, man?” Larry asked. “We need someone inspiring, someone who can perform a freaking miracle, someone who can restore sanity and stability to this great country of ours.”

“So basically you’re saying we need the second coming of Jesus to get us out of this shit,” Mark said.

“Whatever it takes, man.”

Written for these one-word prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (theater),  The Wacky Weekend Challenge (shower), Scotts Daily Prompt (barrier), Ragtag Daily Prompt (friendship),  Word of the Day Challenge (inspiring), and Your Daily Word Prompt (miracle).

#writephoto — From the Gut

Fandango10 Comments

4F3B9FDE-E543-4EBA-92BD-8930EB83B992The first snow of the season. It wasn’t much, maybe a few inches, but it was enough to blanket the fields in snow and to cover the trails and paths.

“It’s early, John,” Maria said. “Is this a harbinger of a cold, wet, white winter?”

“It’s late November, dear,” John said. “So this first snow is actually a little late, in contrast to the past few years.”

“The weather seems to be changing,” Maria said. “Summers seem to be longer, dryer, and hotter. Fall is shorter, winters are colder and wetter, and spring has just about disappeared.”

“Oh come on, Maria,” John said. “Are you going to start going off on that climate change crap again?”

“But, John, are you unaware of the climate change assessment report that was prepared with input from 13 federal agencies involving around 300 scientists?” Maria said.

“Of course I’m aware of it,” John said. “But you know that Trump said that people like him, who have very high levels of intelligence, don’t believe it.”

“Why doesn’t he believe it, John? Where does he get his information?”

“He gets it from his gut,” John said. “He said that his gut tells him more than anybody else’s  brain can ever tell him. So he’s going with his gut.”

“But did you hear the nonsense he spewed when he said this?”

“You look at our air and our water, and it’s right now at a record clean. But when you look at China and you look at parts of Asia and when you look at South America, and when you look at many other places in this world, including Russia, including — just many other places — the air is incredibly dirty. And when you’re talking about an atmosphere, oceans are very small. And it blows over and it sails over. I mean, we take thousands of tons of garbage off our beaches all the time that comes over from Asia. It just flows right down the Pacific, it flows, and we say where does this come from. And it takes many people to start off with.”

“Does any of that word salad make sense to you, John?” Maria asked.

“Okay, maybe his gut was a little off when he said that,” John admitted. “Let’s just enjoy the first snow of the season, shall we?”

“I’m good with that, John,” Maria said, squeezing her husband’s hand.

Written for Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo Prompt. I also fit in these prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (contrast), Ragtag Daily Prompt (unaware), and Your Daily Word Prompt (information).

FFfAW — So Much For Global Warming

Fandango16 Comments

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“It freaking snowed last night,” Jonathan said as he looked out of the kitchen window.

“Get out!” Jeanine, exclaimed. “It never snows around here.” She came over to the window. “Will you look at that? That’s got to be a couple of inches, right?”

“See, Jeanine,” Jonathan said, “the President is right. This whole global warming thing. It’s just a big hoax. How can the the planet be getting hotter if it got cold enough to snow in LA last night?”

Jeanine looked at her husband. “I think you’re confusing weather and climate. Climate change is not just about warming temperatures. It alters weather patterns, which can result in extreme weather events. Heat waves and large storms will become more frequent and more intense. There will be more precipitation, storms, floods, and droughts due to climate change.”

“Woman,” Jonathan said. “You’ve been drinking too much of that liberal Kool Aid lately.”

“Well, Jonathan, maybe you should ask Trump why it snowed here last night. He undoubtably knows more than the climatologists.”

(171 words)

Written for Priceless Joy’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. Photo credit: Yinglan.

And in the End….

Fandango11 Comments

B85E036A-1580-4C89-9101-3D7A21B2E094The news reporter was visibly shaken as he told the viewers about how scientists were predicting the imminent explosion of a nearby star. “Such an explosion, known as a supernova, would pose a significant danger to all life on our planet,” he said.

“Dad,” Alan said, “if that star explodes, will it mean we won’t be able to go on holiday?”

“Don’t worry about it, kid,” Alan’s father said. “It’s fake news. Those goddam liberals soak up this kind of crap all the time. Next thing you know they’ll be talking about how climate change will cause all of us to starve to death and they’ll be hanging papier-mâché dolls of the president in effigy.”

Before the sound of the exploding star could be heard, all life on earth was vaporized.

Written for these one-word prompts: Your Daily Word Prompt (supernova), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (danger), Ragtag Daily Prompt (holiday), Scotts Daily Ptompt (soak), Daily Addictions (starve), and Word of the Day Challenge (effigy).