“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” The Usual Suspects
If you like horror stories, then The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions created by Greta Thunberg is your next read. Packed with intrigue and the terror that makes you spend the night peeking out from behind closed blinds, The Climate Book provides a detailed analysis of what’s happening on the planet because of climate change and what we stand to lose. Ms. Thunberg compiled essays from dozens of the world’s premier scientists and environmentalists writing on topics like droughts, floods, arctic warming, deforestation, methane, health, terrestrial biodiversity, government climate targets, the failed Paris Agreement, the over-carbonization of the world, and our failure to act to change the trajectory of a widespread apocalyptic future, to name a few. The book provides a starting point for educating ourselves on what is at stake and should be required reading for students, teachers, mothers, fathers, and anyone who breathes oxygen to survive.
Problematically, this is not a distant, dystopian future, but a highly probably outcome of our careless negligence, albeit our criminal stewardship of the planet, one we see play out weekly in our meteorology reports: floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, atmospheric rivers, mudslides, species extinction and more, every day, somewhere on our planet, a future that continues to ramp up exponentially like melting sea ice and won’t stop until the planet cries, Reboot! and shakes us loose like fleas on a dog.
It’s not like we haven’t been warned. It’s also not like we don’t care — I mean who among us wants to see their progeny go down in flames — but we are so enamored with our way of life, with a society where a few people make all the economic rules and the rest of us go along because, hey, capitalism!, but in reality, capitalism hasn’t worked for a long time, maybe never. By the time you add up the breaks — taxes, emissions, time to come into compliance, the overuse of resources by a chosen few, and the residual waste strewn across the planet by manufacturers who race to get new products to market with nary a care for the byproduct — you have grossly overestimated the benefit of having 52 new refrigerators to choose from and grossly underestimated the environmental consequences of manufacturing all those refrigerators in the first place.
Take plastic, one of my favorite topics to go on about because it’s quite literally choking us to death, our water, the creatures living in the ocean, and now, with microplastics, the air, clogging up the whole of society: landfills bursting with the refuse, rivers, streams, and oceans catching the overflow quite by accident when extreme wet weather events hit, sending trash spiraling into waterways with greater frequency, and leaving developing countries to deal with the piles of used crap no developed country wants to landfill. Imagine islands inundated with the world’s trash as the gulf stream washes it onto their shores.
You don’t have to. Manila witnesses this daily. This kind of offloading of our waste isn’t an isolated event but recurs with systemic frequency. And guess what? Out of sight doesn’t mean gone. The waste you send to India is eventually going to end up in your tuna which means it will also end up in your body.
Did you know we’re in the middle of a sixth mass extinction? Just let that sit for a minute — 6th mass extinction. What the heck?! We could lose 30% of all plants and animals within the next hundred years. That’s quite a legacy we’re leaving our children.
Speaking of, my oldest kid told me she thinks she doesn’t want kids. With climate change lurking, the world is a dumpster fire and she doesn’t want to risk bringing a kid into this world. That’s a hard thing for a mother to hear and I get it, I do and I can’t begrudge her for feeling that way but here’s the rub: it doesn’t have to be that way, not if we stop play-acting at addressing the problems and actually take action.
Do you really need a thnead, or half a dozen of them?
The devil is in the details. Read The Climate Book. Educate yourself.
Forewarned is forearmed.
pam lazos – 5.19.24
Green Life Blue Water 
Thank you for highlighting the heroes and their work which must be our work too. The rural area we’re moving to does not have curbside recycling YET, but I’ll be encouraging this as we find times to drive our collected recyclables to a facility. Maybe this will encourage me to reduce and reuse more.
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Reduce on, JoAnna!
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Seuss did such a great job with The Lorax (as you did with the post).
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Thank you kindly, Diana!
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I bet it’s an eye-opening book for sure.
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That it is, Michele. Somewhat depressing, though. Reader beware.
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I hope you got my comment! I have trouble with knowing if it worked these days. Usually it will at least say “awaiting moderation” if that’s the case. Hmm 🤔
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Thank you, Pam. This is the horror story of all our lives. I almost didn’t have a child for this reason, but I’m glad I did. She is being educated on oil spills and how it kills our animals. They are learning from a young age. Living life is a real challenge. I think do the Pacific plastic patch, and so many ecological disasters, raining microplastics, and all the things.
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Pam! I hope you’re well. I know life and hope spring up around you. Hugs from afar! xxxxxx
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Thanks 🙏 my friend! 😍🥰😘
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Also – where’ve you been?! I hope all is well with you and yours. Oxo 🥸😘
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It’s been a helluva year, my friend. Mostly in a good way, but also in a challenging way. I’m working on a massive update. 🙂 xxxxxxx
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Oh yes, dear Pam. I am already worried about my grandchildren’s future! What torments me the most is the plastic thrown everywhere by people without a second’s consideration of the outcome.🙄😔💖
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And how is it that a few people make the rules and the rest of us don’t even have a say in what is happening, Aladin — although I know you are no stranger to this dichotomy.
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Thanks for the book recommendation, Pam. I hope that Thunberg’s book awakens more people to our existential crises. For my part, I’ve moved on to spiritually preparing myself for a loving response to societal collapse already in progress worldwide.
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OMG, you are a better woman than I, Rose! Also, don’t know how I missed your Earth Day post, but I’ve signed all that can be signed and hope that it does something to reduce the plastic waste. Problematically, oil companies are expanding their plastics production by about 300%. Crazy, right?! I would have left that info on your blog, but it wouldn’t let me leave a comment. Not sure what goes wonky with wordpress, but sometimes it does that.
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Thanks for reading my Earth Day post, Pam. I set up comments for one month only to reduce the large amount of spam I was receiving every day.
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Oh, the spam. Poor you. Did WordPress work it out?
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They did, Pam. Now, I’m down to a maximum of three-a-day.
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Ah, that’s still too much!
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None of my 4 children have children. It’s a scary world to bring in children.
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It is and it’s too sad.
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Amen! I have been worrying about the next generation’s outlook on the future and whether it would cause them to forgo having children. I wonder at the optimism of young adults who have children nowadays! To be totally honest, I worried about the choice myself back on the 90’s. Unfortunately, it seems that most people would rather not face difficult problems — they’d rather be told that everything is fine — climate change is a hoax! — or that a higher power will provide for them!
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Amen back at you, Betsy. The head in the sand thing is all too real.😞
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SOS!!!
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I know, right, Neil?!
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You’ve given us lots of food for thought Pam, right down to the tuna salad sandwich we enjoy and give no thought to its history. Sickening really and you said it best here: “… and won’t stop until the planet cries, Reboot! and shakes us loose like fleas on a dog.”
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It’s so scary to me to have so little control. I honestly don’t know how we get out of this, Linda, because it feels like people prefer keeping their heads in the sand. 😞
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It’s very disheartening Pam. I’m sorry your daughter feels that way, but I sure understand her mindset.
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Maybe it will change but who knows, Linda. 🤷♀️
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