Is humanity mad?
While writing this, I’m thinking of the Kingston Trio singing Sheldon Harnick’s lyrics: They’re Rioting in Africa; They’re Starving in Spain – I’ve put a link in the text to the version closest to the track in my ear.
Global warming is killing life all over the globe.
There’re hurricances on the coasts,
Floods in the Northeast from the skies and the creeks,
Florida is rejoining the Ocean,
There’s fire and drought in the West,
And hardly anywhere safe to live.
There’s famine in Africa.
There’re floods in India.
There’re storms in Haiti.
Venice and Saigon are sinking, plus New Orleans and New York too.
People die in France from the summer heat.
The Sahara grows.
Siberia’s becoming more livable but the thawing permafrost there releases more greenhouse gas.
Gasoline makes greenhouse gasses but gas companies fight to turn up the thermostat.
Plastics pollute the waters, the fish and our bodies – but there’s money in plastics.
The oceans absorb the carbon in the air and become more acidic, ‘til the acid and the heat kill the fish and coral reefs – the food chain from bottom to top.
And all of this is linked to global warming.
The gas we burn in our houses and cars, and the plastics we put things in, all contribute to greenhouse gasses and global warming at every stage in the process from drilling to manufacture, use and disposal.
The warmer air melts the polar ice, so the oceans rise, and the water absorbs the heat that the ice used to reflect back.
A warmer climate feeds the storms, shifts where the rains fall and dries the world where rains don’t fall, so the forests burn, turning splendid woods into greenhouse gasses that warm the earth still more.
And people die from the heat, the drought and the famine.
But instead of dealing with the existential threats from global warming and other environmental changes:
Putin invades Ukraine.
They’re fighting in Africa.
There’s no peace in Palestine.
The Tonton Macoute rules Haiti for its own benefit.
Gangs orclicas extort what little Central Americans have.
China threatens Taiwan and muzzles Uyghur Muslims
And America is terrified of melanin which turns skin brown or black.
Is humanity mad?
We could fight inflation by finding better ways to move around but all we can agree on is fighting prices.
Wind and solar reduce our dependence on oil and gas but we object to investment in renewable energy and fight about when and where and how much wind and solar projects should be built, and about protecting our forest views. But we don’t bother putting solar arrays over highways and parking lots or even making our roofs and pavement white.
We recycle a fraction of plastic and don’t bother regulating or restricting it lest we stifle the so-called “innovation” that got us into this fix in the first place.
Is humanity mad?
China sends its fishing fleets all over the world and gives the finger to sustainability.
But America’s violent extremists are terrified of engaging with the world to bring any of this under control.
Is humanity mad?
Let’s help restore sanity by voting, seeing your friends do too, and reaching out to friends in swing districts and states.
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
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