Meanwhile, the Planet Is Going to Hell

I haven’t been this angry at politicians since I can remember. I am take-no-prisoners, display-their-dripping-heads-on-pikes angry. And I’m not generally an angry person. I can’t imagine how really angry people must feel.

Meanwhile,

A landmark report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change paints a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought and says that avoiding the damage requires transforming the world economy at a speed and scale that has “no documented historic precedent.”

Right now, I feel that it’s going to take some heads on pikes to get the U.S. government to address this. The political system is broken.

See also: Charles Blow, “Liberals, This Is War

David Atkins, “With Kavanaugh, Republicans Secure An Unjust and Unsustainable Minority Rule

Nancy LeTourneau, “Republicans Have Reason to Fear ‘Mob Rule’”

23 thoughts on “Meanwhile, the Planet Is Going to Hell

  1. "it’s going to take some heads on pikes to get the U.S. government to address this"

    I doubt anything will make Americans take climate change seriously. It's a liberal hoax you know, just like Collusion, Blassey Ford and #MeToo. etc. Besides it's not in the Bible!

     

  2. Trump tweeted that you don't hand matches to an arsonist.. Really? I think it would be better stated if he tweeted.. You don't hand power to a pathologically lying sociopath whose entire existence is built on a foundation of fraud.

  3. “heads on pikes” It may come to that if we don’t take the House and lose ground or fail to gain ground (a possibility) in the Senate. And they will relearn why it was they lost the Civil War. Because incompetent leaders lead to failure. Stupid may be an asset for Republican politics, but it is a fatal liability in more real-world scenarios.

  4. It seems nobody here needs to "hit bottom", since we’re of the psychology that can clearly see it coming and imagine what it would feel like.  But I think we're in the minority.

    Even if one is a full blown capitalist (an honest one), they can see competitive meritocracy being replaced with elite kleptocracy.

    The only real weapon elites have (besides some kind of technological authoritarianism, which is probably still a ways away) is to keep ordinary people squabbling with each other like opposing gangs of sports hooligans wasting energies on each other, while having very little impact on the actual ownership/management of either team.  This energy needs to be united and redirected towards the real cause of the problems.

  5. We are entering the political world that’s been being shaped by the simmering climate change & that's finally coming to a boil after 30 years.

    It is hard to imagine that the likes of Trump, McConnell, Putin, Erdogan, Bolsonaro, Duterte, et al are going to join an international cooperative effort to do anything to stop it. Last week, it became apparent the Trump administration treats warming as a done deal, and therefore feels no need to regulate auto emissions.

    The last couple weeks have hit my faith in our future hard. Admittedly it was pretty weak to start with. I see we have a new hurricane…

  6. We humans are probably already doomed.

    However, before we exit, we are very close to leaving behind a permanent, near-eternal, mechanical generation of offspring.

    Rapidly growing advances in AI, robotics, and computerization, could lead to androids who are very much like us – ONLY BETTER. 

    Asimov's  great book, "I, Robot," describes the pitfalls involved, and some possible solutions.

     We probably aren't too far away from very human-like androids (actually, if I learned that our military already has one that was completely indistinguishable from a real human, I wouldn't be shocked).

    Hopefully, the good human traits can be programmed in, and the bad, out (like no religion, race, unlimited pride, hate, etc…).

    If we humans do "extinct" ourselves, our mechanical "children" can continue our quest to explore our Solar System, and maybe the Galaxy – and beyond?

    Right now though, I suspect we're closer to "Soylent Green," than some human and/or android Utopia.

    And don't get me started on potable water…

     

  7. If it makes you feel any better, Barbara, heads will roll when the glaciers and ice shelves break loose and raise the sea level by a meter or so, flooding billions of people out of their homes in the process.

    Somehow, that prospect doesn't make me feel any better.

     

  8. Ok, let me just finish what was behind my last word-turd:

    The coming Potable Water Wars.

    Long before we humans starve, we'll die from severe dehydration.

    And besides, how do you swallow a dry Soylent Green cracker without H2O?

  9. Yesterday, I watched a couple mummy movies on TCM.  The theme of one was a swamp that was being drained in one of the swampy states and a couple of mummies were exposed, having been hiding out for centuries.  I couldn't help compare that with our current political situation.  Perhaps  Kavanaugh is a mummy exposed by Trump's swamp draining.  Of course, the mummy coming back to life did a lot of damage, killing a lot of people to get to the other mummy who was a princess who  couldn't remember who she was.  I love October.

  10. grannyeagle…Were there any white women accompanying Ba'wana ( the great white adventurer) who were wearing jodhpurs and a pith helmet in the movie? You know, dressed like Melanoma Trump was dressed on her recent African couture tour. If my memory serves me correctly Hollywood always included a "dame" outfitted like that in the script for movies where mummies were un-crypted.

  11. It's interesting that you're angry. I'm many years past anger, and into resignation, depression. I've studied history, and have been tracking this country's decline against historical analogues, for years.  They provide a map.

    For me, it's save yourself time. Yes, vote and do what you can to slow the descent.

    The next trip lines are: the November midterms. And the "stochastic terrorism" baiting that Trump and the right are throwing out, demonizing their enemies as "the mob" and worse. They are looking for a fight, and betting that their enemies are too weak to fight back, for real, with guns and violence. It will give them justification to call out the army to defend themselves against "the mob".

  12. In 1964 I met my future husband in San Francisco – he was an “ecologist.”  I was not sure what that was then and most people thought he was an extremist.  He became an environmental river planner and regional planner working for non-profit organizations all his life.  He told me, years ago, that Houston would be flooded some day, and more than once.  He told me that our water quality would significantly deteriorate because of overpopulation, that fish in the ocean would perish and people would get sick/die from all the chemicals in our drinking water.  He told me some areas would have no water and people would fight for it.  My husband of 51 years died this morning at 8 am, so he won’t witness all his predictions.  We will take him to Taylor Hollow and bury him naturally in the Tennessee hills, without chemical to further contaminate the soil.  Larkspur Conservation has a non-profit land preserve there.  It is the first conservation burial ground in TN, opened in spring 2018 and protected by the Nature Conservancy.  I owe him a low-impact, environmentally friendly mindful burial according to our Buddhist philosophy.

  13. My heartfelt condolences go out to you, Vagabonde. My hope is that your faith will sustain you through this difficult and painful time.

     

  14. I am so sorry to hear of your loss, Vagabonde.  Many posts ago, you mentioned that your husband was not well, and that remained in my mind, whenever you wrote a comment.  Most of us are at the age when we lose a few friends every year, and have to prepare ourselves for the loss of our closest companion.  Maybe that makes it possible for us to empathize more deeply, or maybe it just gives us the illusion that we can.  None of us will know, until we are in that moment.

    Your husband sounds like a very good man, the world needs more like him.  

  15. Vagabonde: Sorry for your loss, I'm sure you take solace in the fact that your husbands life's work was well worth doing.

  16. Heads on pikes?

    From the science-fiction TV series "Babylon 5":

    Shadow Agent Morden: "What do _you_ want?"

    Vir Cotto: "I want to live just long enough to see them cut off your head and stick it on a pike, as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come at too high a price. I'll look into your lifeless eyes and wave… like this." (He waves.)

    Later Vir Cotto does just that!

  17. vagabonde,

    My deepest condolences for your loss.  And our loss, too.  He seems  like a wonderful and smart man.

    Lean on family and friends at this same time. 

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