No, there is nothing that ties these things together.
I read the news today (oh boy), and was fascinated by a story about giant, aggressive squid showing up in the waters off San Diego, far from their natural habitat. They're not causing problems for swimmers and surfers, but they're being very aggressive with some divers - several have given up diving until the squid are gone.
Squid (L)ink
Interesting reading, especially the part about the squid giving people the stink eye, and trying to pull face masks off.
Pat Buchanan couldn't see that there was anything wrong with his reasoning, even when Rachel tried to confront him. He did that thing scared conservatives always do when common sense and logic might be inserted into the discussion - talk louder, refuse to shut up, talk even louder, until the segment ends.
It isn't rudeness, in the ordinary sense, it's abject terror. I don't think the cognitive dissonance is as complete as it often appears to be. If there wasn't something that felt fragile in their arguments, they wouldn't need to shout down all opposition would they?
Whenever Lawrence O'Donnell takes one of the opinionators on and starts shredding their talking points, the fear shows in their eyes. They refuse to return to an arena where someone is strong enough to shut them up, or loud enough to talk over them, because the fear overwhelms them. I think they talk only to each other because they need constant reassurance, a daily booster shot that inoculates them against the niggling fear that their parachute is made of gauze and they're going to hit the ground hard.
The old guys, Pat's age, are longing for the 50's and early 60's, but they don't remember what it was really like. They want the world created by Hollywood and television, a world where everything is clean and uncomplicated. They want small problems - the Beav told a lie - which can be wrapped up in half an hour, with dad showing great wisdom, and mom hovering supportively in the background. They don't want to see blacks being murdered, oppressed, treated as less than human. They want them invisible, the way there were in sit-coms. They want a world where gays are deeply closeted. They want women in pumps and shirtwaists and petticoats, putting dinner on the table at the right time. They want to believe that women really care about waxy yellow build-up and Intensified Tide. They don't want to know that June Cleaver needs major tranqs and a couple of martinis before she slips that perfect meal out of the oven.
They long for a world that only existed in television studios, and they don't even know it wasn't real.
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What if humans suddenly disappear from the earth?
Within six hours all the subway tunnels under NYC will be filled with water, because no one will be there to supervise the sump pumps.
Within a few days lights will go out all over the world - the last remaining lighted area would probably be Las Vegas, because the turbines at Hoover Dam are self sustaining for a very long time. What will probably destroy them is Zebra mussels blocking the cooling pipes. They'll overheat, and be shut down automatically, one at a time, and then the earth will be dark - volcanos, wildfires, forest fires, and lightning storms would be the only things competing with the moon and stars.
Within 5 years yards and parks will be returning to their natural state - prairie, forest, slough.
Within 20 years buildings that haven't already burned will be crumbling from temperature changes and invasive plants. Wild animals, birds, feral pets and assorted vermin will be balancing a new ecosystem.
At 40 years the largest bridges will most likely be gone, and the roadways completely overgrown. Few buildings will remain standing, large swaths of the countryside will appear to be untouched by human-built structures.
The ecologists know this is a reasonable timeline because it's now safe to go into Pripyat, the city nearest Chernobyl, a city of 50,000 residents fully evacuated within 48 hours, 20 years ago. They know exactly what an abandoned city looks like in 20 years. Deer and bears and wolves have returned, and forest is taking over the city. No one believed recovery could happen so quickly in an area that was wiped clean of all life by radiation.
The pyramids, Machu Pichu, Stonehenge will probably remain recognizable for a long time, but our recent constructions will mostly be heaps of rubble covered with moss and vines and grass.
40 years isn't very long. We'll be erased, almost entirely, within 40 years.
We don't need to save the planet, we need to figure out how to save our sorry asses.