About a million people have been evacuated, probably the largest mass movement of Americans since the Civil War. Thousands of homes destroyed, nearly half a million acres of forests are burning, and it's still going strong. A couple of weeks ago, I predicted we would soon find out what our boiling point really is. I'm not fond of being right just now. I'm actually becoming rather depressed about how right I've been. I'm not bragging, I'm pleading. I'm afraid I'm going to be right about my other warning -- you know, the nuclear one -- although it may not matter if we've already burned up.
Perspective is a funny thing. You, whoever you are, may be reading this, and you may be concerned about the California fires, but you may also be somewhat amused by my tone here, because you're pretty sure we're going to come through all this somehow. Well, my tone is what it is because I'm not sure. I pray California soon receives the weather breaks it needs, and it can begin to try and recover, this time. But virtually every scientist not in the employ of ExxonMobil is telling us that the effects of climate change are increasing exponentially, each condition becoming a contributing factor in the worsening of other conditions, and so on. On Venus they called it a runaway greenhouse effect.
I tried to watch some of CNN's "Planet In Peril" thing, but I couldn't. Nice hi-def shots, and all that, but, really, what was that? I agree it's scandalous, criminal and horribly damaging the way endangered species are captured and sold, but, but ... there's a larger message, and CNN is still behaving like the good corporatist tool.
And so it goes, as Vonnegut used to say. And so it goes.
If you dig around, you can find a few more direct stories from the MSM. Here's a study published on MSNBC: Study: Warming is stronger, happening sooner. It says, among other things, that carbon dioxide emissions in 2006 were 35% higher than they were in 1990. 35%. We appear to be our very own runaway greenhouse environmental catastrophe. Just wait until the ice caps melt.
We're still living in the Twilight Zone. Every aspect of our world and our society is telling us we have to change now, radically, dramatically, immediately. But soon we'll have the chill winter winds to drive us back indoors by the fireplace, and soon we'll drift back to sleep.
My own condition isn't that good, actually. I've been taking an awful lot of medication, and I haven't really improved. I'm not able to get around well, and I'm still thinking that I will improve, you know, for a while anyway, but my condition may have something to do with my own reluctance to drift off with the rest of you. Time is relative. It may well be that none of us have nearly enough of it.
Everything you fear about change may be nothing compared to my fear of the status quo, as it now exists. I feel very strongly that you should fear the status quo as much as I do. I have not been indulging in much speculation regarding radical societal change before now, because I, too, was thinking we had more time. It's time to go with my instincts. I want you to search inside yourselves. It's time to re-think. It's time to cut off our emissions.
One little fire, and here I start shrieking that the sky is falling.
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