by Pa Rock
Survivor
January 1st, 2020. Somehow this mud ball we call Planet Earth has found the strength and will to spin its way around the sun 3,652 additional times over the past decade, all the while avoiding what must be a rabid urge to rid itself of mankind once and for all in a riotous purge of fires, famines, locusts, ticks, quakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, disease, plagues, the common cold, and whatever else it takes to accomplish a thorough environmental cleansing - and give the rest of nature a chance at survival.
We have been lucky so far, but our unrelenting pursuit of wealth and comfort is showing clear signs of nearing an end - one that will undoubtedly be catastrophic - for that is the only way that nature will ever get our attention.
The polar ice caps are melting, and that is not alarmist hyperbole - it's actual, observable, measurable fact. Greenland is melting, as well. The ozone layer above the earth, which has a filtering effect on the sun's rays, is being steadily depleted by man-made chemical emissions and activities (like gasoline-powered cars, or coal-fired power plants) - things that are preventable or can be changed. So the ice is melting alarmingly fast. Most of us who made it past fourth grade or so know that when ice melts it makes water - and when big masses of ice melt the water goes into the oceans and sea levels rise - and rising sea levels cover low-lying lands - lands where most of the earth's population lives, lands where tourists frolic and economies thrive - at least for the time-being. There are streets in Miami, Florida, that are already regularly underwater.
Australia is burning. It's a long way off and many of us fail to get very excited about what is happening down there. But we will care when changing weather patterns create situations that bring about massive fires here in our own country. That day draws near.
Diseases which were once thought to be nearly eradicated are back and flourishing, thanks to things like over-crowding and poverty - and particularly thanks to profound ignorance. Educated people are buying into quack theories about "dangers" of inoculations and choosing not to give their children basic life-saving shots - shots which protect not only their own progeny, but the rest of us as well. We should not have to be worrying about measles in the twenty-first century!
Poverty and hunger are still with us. People like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates and Mike Bloomberg and the Walmart Waltons have enough money to feed and educate every child in America, yet there are thousands of children in the US living in cars and digging through dumpsters in search of their next "meals," and millions who lack basic food security.
If nature needs a hand in eliminating the dangerous nuisance of humanity, greed always begets war at some point - so we stand ready and willing to help in our own demise. As an adjunct to war, terrorism also thrives. In our own country bigotry is cultivated by unscrupulous politicians and blossoms brightly. People who can't speak or write in complete sentences are stockpiling guns and believe they are part of a grand militia charged with protecting white people (like Jesus) from non-Christians, non-English-speakers, and the brown hordes from shithole countries who are desperate to storm into the US where they can pluck chickens and wash toilets for less than minimum wage.
The 20's will either be a decade of abrupt changes to our attitudes and ways of living, or we will choose to blindly limp onward to an inevitable conclusion - one in which humans are factored out of the equation of life on earth.
We have had our wake-up call and now all of the alarms are clanging at once. If mankind is to survive, it is time to stand and roar down the winds of greed, ignorance, and bigotry that have for too long given us our direction in life. A whimper won't do. A polite rebuttal will be futile. It is time to ROAR!
Survivor
January 1st, 2020. Somehow this mud ball we call Planet Earth has found the strength and will to spin its way around the sun 3,652 additional times over the past decade, all the while avoiding what must be a rabid urge to rid itself of mankind once and for all in a riotous purge of fires, famines, locusts, ticks, quakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, disease, plagues, the common cold, and whatever else it takes to accomplish a thorough environmental cleansing - and give the rest of nature a chance at survival.
We have been lucky so far, but our unrelenting pursuit of wealth and comfort is showing clear signs of nearing an end - one that will undoubtedly be catastrophic - for that is the only way that nature will ever get our attention.
The polar ice caps are melting, and that is not alarmist hyperbole - it's actual, observable, measurable fact. Greenland is melting, as well. The ozone layer above the earth, which has a filtering effect on the sun's rays, is being steadily depleted by man-made chemical emissions and activities (like gasoline-powered cars, or coal-fired power plants) - things that are preventable or can be changed. So the ice is melting alarmingly fast. Most of us who made it past fourth grade or so know that when ice melts it makes water - and when big masses of ice melt the water goes into the oceans and sea levels rise - and rising sea levels cover low-lying lands - lands where most of the earth's population lives, lands where tourists frolic and economies thrive - at least for the time-being. There are streets in Miami, Florida, that are already regularly underwater.
Australia is burning. It's a long way off and many of us fail to get very excited about what is happening down there. But we will care when changing weather patterns create situations that bring about massive fires here in our own country. That day draws near.
Diseases which were once thought to be nearly eradicated are back and flourishing, thanks to things like over-crowding and poverty - and particularly thanks to profound ignorance. Educated people are buying into quack theories about "dangers" of inoculations and choosing not to give their children basic life-saving shots - shots which protect not only their own progeny, but the rest of us as well. We should not have to be worrying about measles in the twenty-first century!
Poverty and hunger are still with us. People like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates and Mike Bloomberg and the Walmart Waltons have enough money to feed and educate every child in America, yet there are thousands of children in the US living in cars and digging through dumpsters in search of their next "meals," and millions who lack basic food security.
If nature needs a hand in eliminating the dangerous nuisance of humanity, greed always begets war at some point - so we stand ready and willing to help in our own demise. As an adjunct to war, terrorism also thrives. In our own country bigotry is cultivated by unscrupulous politicians and blossoms brightly. People who can't speak or write in complete sentences are stockpiling guns and believe they are part of a grand militia charged with protecting white people (like Jesus) from non-Christians, non-English-speakers, and the brown hordes from shithole countries who are desperate to storm into the US where they can pluck chickens and wash toilets for less than minimum wage.
The 20's will either be a decade of abrupt changes to our attitudes and ways of living, or we will choose to blindly limp onward to an inevitable conclusion - one in which humans are factored out of the equation of life on earth.
We have had our wake-up call and now all of the alarms are clanging at once. If mankind is to survive, it is time to stand and roar down the winds of greed, ignorance, and bigotry that have for too long given us our direction in life. A whimper won't do. A polite rebuttal will be futile. It is time to ROAR!
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