The Climate Change Trilogy

Yes this is the 3rd post on "climate change" (see previous two posts). It's a big looming problem. And to most of us it's invisible. It's a big, long-term problem that needs collective, coordinated action. And that's just not something humans are good at.

We are much better at competition. We've even built economic systems that encourage competition, that rewards winners and punishes losers. It's kind of a ridiculous way to run a world, but hey, that's how we do it!

And our language fails us too. Global warming is kind of a misnomer, and Climate Change sounds quaint, genteel - it doesn't really sound bad. Change is good, right?

You'd like to invoke biblical, apocalyptic language: pestilence, scourge, hell-fire, rain of frogs, rain of blood to sort of convey the proposed future.

These are the things that FREAK ME OUT when I think about climate change: What happens when the oceans die? What happens when the trees die? What happens when all the pretty little creatures die? What happens when the fertile regions of the world become flooded? Or they become deserts? How do we feed ourselves? What happens when drinking water and edible food becomes scarce? How do world governments act? Will the people turn on each other? How will we keep the lights on? 

Will we all fight to get to higher ground? Will the rich crush the poor? How will we deal with epidemics and world-wide sickness? And will we all just scratch our heads and wonder if it was all inevitable, or avoidable?  

Maybe it really is inevitable. Kind of built into us. Maybe it's a Freudian thing. We love nature, and hate it too. We've tried to dominate it, tame it, harvest it, own it.  And really nature can't be tamed or owned. And we, as a species will learn that lesson, the hard way.