Our children deserve to breathe easy.
None of us can deny that!
None of us have a right to deny them that!
Our current president is a climate change denier but he has children.
“I am not a believer,” Trump said on a radio show in September 2015. “Unless somebody can prove something to me, I believe there’s weather.”
He’s not alone holding this opinion either.
Climate change denial hit a six-year high in 2014, with 23 percent of Americans saying they do not believe in global warming, and 53 percent saying they do not believe global warming is human-caused.
I don’t believe it very likely these deniers are persuadable to the fact of anthropogenic climate change. I think it prudent to skirt the issue and hit them on another indisputable fact.
CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels results in air pollution. The climate change deniers can’t argue with that because pictures prove its existence.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume most of these climate change deniers do care about their children. That seems to be a rather universal trait across all peoples around the world no matter how ill informed. So a better line of reasoning to use with a denier revolves around the dangerous level of air pollution we’re seeing around the world and the harm it is causing our children. That seems like a no-brainer approach to me.
A fresh report is alarming.
Counting 2 billion children breathing unhealthy air — out of a total 2.26 billion world population of children — means the vast majority are being exposed to levels of pollution considered by the WHO to be unsafe.
Out of that 2 billion breathing toxic air, the report puts 620 million of them in South Asia — mostly northern India. Another 520 million children are breathing toxic air in Africa, and 450 million in East Asia, mainly China, according to the report, which combined satellite images of pollution and ground data with demographic patterns to determine which populations fell into the highest risk areas.
Children around the world are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of air pollution. This is because they breathe faster than adults and as a result take in more air. Since their minds and bodies are not fully developed along with their immune systems high levels of pollution cause more damage relative to adults exposed to the same levels of pollution.
The impact is commensurately shocking,” with 600,000 children younger than 5 across the world dying every year from air pollution-related diseases, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said…
Millions more suffer from respiratory diseases that diminish their resilience and affect their physical and cognitive development.
According to the new 2016 report from the American Lung Association air quality in the U.S is improving but we still have a long way to go.
The annual, national air quality “report card” found that 166 million Americans live with unhealthful levels of air pollution, putting them at risk for premature death and other serious health effects like lung cancer, asthma attacks, cardiovascular damage, and developmental and reproductive harm.
Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution (Annual PM2.5):
Bakersfield, Calif.
Visalia-Porterville-Hanford, Calif.
Fresno-Madera, Calif.
Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif.
El Centro, Calif.
(tied) Modesto-Merced, Calif.
(tied) San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, Calif.
Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, Pa.-Ohio-W. Va.
Harrisburg-York-Lebanon, Pa.
Louisville-Jefferson
County-Elizabethtown-Madison, KY-IN
The Church of the Holy Shitters will post articles on our holy S.H.I.T. day ( So Happy It's Thursday) Hoping to add some humor, provoke thought, spark debate, deepen understanding, and shed some light on the fecal side.
Remember: "If we really want to straighten out all this crap we really need to think about shit." ( Shitbit by Poop John the First of the Church of the Holy Shitters )
A secular environmental religion, scientifically based, with a focus on the psychology of it all. Our ego is the culprit when it comes to dealing with climate change. We cannot save the planet. We can only save ourselves. Our current egotistical self-perception makes that prospect a dubious one at best. Meekness, humility and a realization that our shit does stink, guides us on our path to true sustainable living and climate equilibrium.
Learn more about the Church of the Holy Shitters here.
Cross posted at holyshitters.com/...;