We’re in the midst of the worst ecological extinction event and collapse and die-off of species of life since the death of the dinosaurs from a giant meteor collision with the planet. However this one is largely human caused. This extinction event, known as the “sixth Extinction” (due to the recognition of 5 major extinction events in the earth’s history) is expected to result in the loss of at least one-half to two-thirds of the species on the planet. That climate change is real and a dangerous threat is known and acknowledged by virtually all in the science community. The only deniers are those who swallowed the lies and disinformation from the exploiting energy oil and coal companies, such as Exxon-Mobil, and those financed and bribed by them. Those politicians who defy Exxon-Mobil, other fossil fuel companies, and their backers, and admit to climate change are threatened with withdrawal of their huge financial support and even with support of a challenger to their congressional office or position.
Stephen Hawking recently predicted that humans on the earth will not survive on earth for as much as 1000 years more. He feels that our best hope for long term survival will be to colonize Mars and move out to other planets. However, can humans be expected to terraform Mars when we can’t even work to save our own terraformed planet.
Coral Reefs are dying off, including the Great Barrier Reef, due to rise in sea water temperatures and increased acidity of the oceans due to increase in carbon dioxide levels in the water. Trees are being killed off in mass by harmful insects which previously had died off with the long winter freezes. These attackers are moving northward every year and destroying entire forests of trees. With their death, these trees, which absorbed and stored CO2, now provide fuel for ever larger and more frequent fires and droughts. Animals and plants can often adapt to natural slow changes over generations. Species, such as seals and sea lions, who produce their young as in previous years only to starve when find their prey moved cooler water or reproduced earlier and further north. Birds nest only to find their food source is now out of sync with their time line having peaked weeks earlier.
That extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe should be obvious. The melting of the polar ice caps and Greenland ice sheet and threat of sea level rise to island nations and low lying cities and lands should raise a red flag.
The Paris Climate Accord was a long delayed and insufficient start. But even this inadequate response is threatened by self-serving deniers such as President elect Trump and his proposed cabinet.
Donald Trump has been accused of being inconsistent. But his cabinet choices and aides appear very consistent. He is surrounding himself with greedy selfish wealthy people who deny the existence of any facts and views which are not in line with their beliefs. His chief advisor is a neo-nazi bigot supported by the KKK. His choice to head the EPA is a climate denier who wants to do away with the EPA; and so on down the line. His choice for Secretary Of State is the CEO of Exxon-Mobil and friend of Putin and Russia.
The United States military has concluded that the country’s biggest threat is from climate change. Extreme weather events like drought and flooding are uprooting large populations and the resulting suffering, joblessness, and starvation are feeding extremist groups and ideologies. Trump has said this is bunk and plans to punish and replace our military leaders with those in agreement with his distorted views. It is not surprising that he has not bothered to attend intelligence briefings. After all, he knows more than anyone in the intelligence community.
Humans with their blissful denial are giving lemming a bad name. We’re all on a driverless train speeding down an ever steepening mountain heading toward a cliff.
Or, in actuality, we’ve already plunged off that cliff and are in free fall. We’re enjoying the feeling of weightlessness and the wind in our face like a dog with his head out the window. No worries till we hit the ground.