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BULLY PULPIT
Friday June 2, 2017
What any bully-pulpit politician pronounces has little to do with the future of this planet.
Climate is global, doesn’t know boundaries, laws or politics – doesn’t study political science, doesn’t vote – transports us around our sun, provided all sustenance for all life, here long before us, and will be long after our species is extinct. Some experts argue this planet and many species are ‘past the point of no return’, that their extinction event is already assured and underway.
Climate changes in little increments resulting in major changes every few thousand years. Throughout this planet’s history (mostly pre-people) climate patterns have changed. Slowly. Inexorably.
Weather fluctuates daily, but climate looms larger, ultimately more important to life. But our climate is changing much faster lately, and the scientific community knows why. So do most of us, but most of us aren’t bullies and we don’t have the world’s biggest pulpit.
Debate rages whether we can fix much of anything, fix a lot, or whether our goose is already cooked.
Whichever is ‘the right answer’, every individual can do more for our planet than Donald Trump can/will with all his power. His commitment to keeping promises that match his ego and tweets literally ‘trumps’ fact and argument.
Yesterday’s U.S. withdrawal from COP21 Paris Climate Agreement was right-headed/wrong-headed depending on your view/affiliation. A few days of news cycle, lots of ink in headlines – a political spin distraction from Trump political troubles and otherwise not much impact. Endangered species no-less/no-more vulnerable – no better protected. If he’d made the opposite announcement – probably the same level of minimal impact on anything. Only the spin would be different.
Our planet survives and spins around the sun – done it since the big-bang, through ice-ages and dinosaurs, polar ice caps and tidal waves, through droughts and famines, through dinosaurs and movements of earth’s plates …
Did you know – that Paris Accord has fine print?
If U.S. pulls out as Mr. Trump decreed, their withdrawal process isn’t automatic. Earliest mathematical time they could fully ‘exit’ is November 2020, ironically, as Americans go to polls again to choose their President. I expect Mr. Trump will self-destruct well before then. His successor will likely be wiser on climate issues.
Many of us will kvetch over morning coffees about what Trump has done to/for/against people/countries, but he’s not done much. We’ll debate whether he’s doing another calculated head-fake, another negotiating tactic to force countries to renegotiate with him, to please his fervent rally-attending fans.
Indifferent to actions of any one person or national government decision – earth still spins. It’s our bus, we are its passengers.
The earth didn’t change yesterday.
Nor did we …
Earth, third rock from the sun, whirling at incredible speed and hurtling through space even faster – only gravity preventing us from being space debris. Whether or not some politician did something absurd yesterday, this big rock has no knowledge of what was said.
The real issue is whether we value life and our planet enough to keep it viable to support our species. It doesn’t matter what Mr. Trump does – what matters is what we each do. Seven billion of us will change things – not one man at his bully pulpit.
If we don’t change we won’t survive as a species. Or deserve to.
Reader feedback:
BLAH DAYS CURED
If you are sitting in a restaurant, pondering a problem, life, loves, weight or whatever; you inevitably look around and think "Why are all these people so much more relaxed, happier, settled, better organized than I am?" Not true. Every single one of us carries our own unique knapsack with us. Inside are tears, laughter, stress, conundrums, and uncertainty. Last night's guilt and today's uncertainty sit on top of everyone. It was Charlie Chaplain who wrote the song " Smile Though Your Heart is Aching". The words ring true every day for everyone of us, GB, Calgary, AB
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