planet

#WDYS — Ignore At Your Own Peril

Fandango31 Comments

It couldn’t be any clearer. Like a glaring neon sign, it’s telling us we need to take definitive action now. Before it’s too late.

The air we breathe. The water we drink. We can no longer take it for granted. We can’t assume that the air will always be fresh and breathable or that the water will be clean and potable. Life cannot survive without breathable air and drinkable water.

Yet we argue whether climate change is a hoax or is real. We refuse to accept that we are destroying our planet, our only home. We are reluctant to invest in clean energy and curtail our use of toxic chemicals and pollutants. We put our heads in the sand and say — or pray — that this, too, shall pass. We believe that the supernatural being that created us will protect us and will not let our planet die. Will not let us perish.

So it will be business as usual. Until it isn’t and life on Earth has been extinguished.

Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See prompt.

Unenlightened Self-interests

Fandango12 Comments

My mind lately has been a packapoo ticket, thoughts indecipherable and confused. In my musings, I ponder how we, the designated stewards of our planet, are failing. The world has become a somber place, gloomy, dark, and dangerous. But most haven’t an inkling of what’s at stake or how they are responsible for the darkness ahead of us.

I look out the window and see men having arguments over some minor grievances while they greedily partake in a banquet of the bounty of Mother Earth.

But I am but one individual, virtually powerless to impact the political realities of unenlightened self-interests.

Written for these daily prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (packapoo ticket), Word of the Day Challenge (musing/steward), Fandango’s One Word Challenge (somber/dangerous), Your Daily Word Prompt (inkling/argument), My Vivid Blog (responsible/banquet), and The Daily Spur (window).

Irresponsible

Fandango17 Comments

I fear for the future. The planet upon which we live is exquisite, and perhaps unique in all of the vast universe. But are we doing enough to keep it that way?

We all desire for our children and their children to have a safe place to live, with clean air and potable water. But as a society, we seem to be inexplicably mellow, or even reluctant, when it comes to taking the necessary — and in some cases, difficult — steps to make sure that happens.

There may be some merit to the argument that, through the ages, there have been cycles to changes in the climate. But it can also be argued that, since the Industrial Age, we have been spewing more and more pollutants into the atmosphere and pouring large quantities of toxic chemicals into our streams, rivers, and oceans.

This difference in perspectives has caused significant political tension between those who see changes in our climate as being part of a natural cyclical process and those who believe that the activities of humans has both exacerbated and accelerated what could be irreversible changes to our climate.

I don’t know who is right, but it seems to me that we are witnessing weather events that are stronger and more devastating and more frequent than we have had in decades, if not centuries. We are seeing global temperatures rising at an alarming rate. There are warnings that if the world’s temperatures continue to rise at this pace, the planet may, within a few generations, become inhospitable to many forms of life, including human beings.

To sit back and do nothing, and to potentially put human life in jeopardy, when there are steps we can take to try to address the problem of climate change is, to me, an abomination.*

Written for these daily prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (exquisite), The Daily Spur (desire), My Vivid Blog (mellow), Your Daily Word Prompt (merit), Fandango’s One Word Challenge (tension), Word of the Day Challenge (generation), and E.M’s Random Word Prompt (abomination).

*Okay, “an abomination” may be too strong a way of putting it, but “abomination” is one of today’s daily prompt words. Otherwise, “irresponsible” would be a better choice.

Before It’s Too Late

Fandango31 Comments

The members of the progressive caucus were in lockstep as their chairman began to expatiate on the urgency of dealing with climate change. “We are in the middle of a historic drought,” he said. “Our once plush green fields have turned to arid deserts. We must stop procrastinating or we will continue to have out of control wildfires and other weather extremes that will further exacerbate our climate crisis, which grows more dire with each passing month of inaction.”

“The foregoing comments from my esteemed colleague on the left,” the conservative congressman interrupted, “reflect his empty, liberal rhetoric designed to provide cover for all this hysteria around so-called climate change. Throughout recorded history there have been multiple cyclical weather patterns, yet our planet has survived and humanity has thrived.”

“Sir,” the progressive caucus chairman said, “climate and weather are not the same. Weather refers to short-term atmospheric conditions, while climate refers to long-term and potentially irreversible changes to the weather averaged over an extended period of time.”

“You liberals are bound and determined to destroy our economy by spending billions of dollars to fix a problem that doesn’t exist,” the conservative congressman said. “There have always been incidents of wildfires, massive storms, floods, and earthquakes. Let us not be reactionaries and go off half-cocked.”

“Congressman, you are seventy-five years old. If you can’t do what’s necessary to save our planet for your generation, think about what you can do to save it for your grandchildren’s generation — before it’s too late.”

“That’s their problem, not mine,” the congressman said coldly. “They’ll figure something out.”

“No, congressman, it’s up to us to figure this out before we completely squander our children’s futures. We need to act now or we will have missed this, and possibly the final, opportunity to save our planet.”

Written for these daily prompts from yesterday: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (lockstep), Your Daily Word Prompt (expatiate), Ragtag Daily Prompt (arid), My Vivid Blog (procrastinating), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (foregoing), Word of the Day Challenge (cover), and The Daily Spur (incident).

Hero or Fool

Fandango15 Comments

By all appearances, he was at the apex of his career. He was known as a collector of fine arts, a man of unquestionable integrity. He was regarded by many as the epitome of financial success and many watched him to see what his next accomplishment might be.

But then something really bizarre happened. He gave away his collection of fine arts. He liquidated most of his personal assets. He even sold off all of his business interests.

His friends and colleagues were flabbergasted by the man’s sudden change. And his wife and adult children were furious with the loss of their potential inheritance.

When asked why he took such drastic action by a member of the press, he said that he was done with the material world. He said that he was surrounded by greed and unenlightened self-interests that were destroying humanity and the planet, and that he could no longer sit back and quietly or passively condone what was happening all around him. He said it was time to change the orientation of humanity and society from selfishness to compassion. It was time to save the planet.

To that end, he said that he would be donating all of the proceeds from his art collections and the businesses he sold to various charities that would focus on restoring the environment and promoting equality for all citizens of the planet. And then he pledged to reduce his own carbon footprint to zero by living a modest life in solitude in a rustic cabin high atop a hill and deep in the woods.

Some thought of him as a hero. Others thought of him as a fool. But he felt that nobody ever heard his concerns, nobody ever listened. They thought he had his head in the clouds. And it got to the point that he believed being thought of as a fool on a hill with his head in the clouds was better than wallowing around in the muck that surrounded us all.

Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (appearance), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (apex) Your Daily Word Prompt (integrity), Ragtag Daily Prompt (watched), Word of the Day Challenge (bizarre), My Vivid Blog (collection), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (orientation).