Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Heat Apocalypse

I have been worried about climate change for a long time, and  merely concerned about it for even longer.  I did what I could do--tried to get students to think about it, and engaged with the public through newspaper commentaries and blog-posts.

In an op-ed that was published in the summer of 2016, I wrote:

When records are being shattered in places across the world, across different parameters of heat, rain, drought, and cold, then surely these are not isolated events but a part of a larger story.

When it comes to that larger story of global climate change, it is not a case of what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Instead, the cumulative effects of Vegas and everywhere else means that all of us anywhere on the planet are feeling the effects. The more extreme the resulting weather events, the more will be the destruction of life and property as well.

In another commentary in 2018, when the former guy was in the Oval Office, I wrote:

The rest of the world has seemingly given up on the US when it comes to addressing global climate change. Meanwhile, in pursuing an “America First” approach, we are oblivious to the reality that there is no wall that we can build in the atmosphere in order to create our own climate. 

If only we understood how much our lives are intricately connected to the life of an auto-rickshaw driver on the other side of the planet!

Here we are in the summer of 2022, and the world seems to be on fire.  London registers 104 degrees!  It was hotter than Miami or Houston.  The Iberian peninsula is battling fires.  Two months ago, the news was all about the heatwave in the Subcontinent; remember?

Yet, we don't seem to want to address climate change.  How is such apathy possible?

Here in the US, many would like to conveniently point their accusatory fingers at Senator Manchin.  Sure, he is to be blamed.  But, he is not the only one.

I agree with Rampell:

There is an entire political party — the GOP — that has shown roughly zero interest in addressing climate change, assuming its leaders even recognize that the planet is warming. Manchin’s vote wouldn’t be so crucial if just one Republican senator were willing to break ranks and work with Democrats on a compromise.

But for some reason Republican politicians have mostly received a pass as the media by and large framed legislative sclerosis as a Manchin-centric phenomenon.

I suppose the Bible-thumping Republicans want to speed up the date of the final hours on this planet after which they will be up there with their savior while we climate worriers will be left behind!

A reminder that you and I can do whatever we can.  Starting with voting wisely and throwing out the deniers.  Do you really want to be left behind or saved?


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