Some in this country -- (they call themselves "conservatives," but the only thing they want to conserve is an unsustainable status quo) -- believe the answer to our problems is another bite of that apple. They want to drill for more oil and dig for more coal. They believe that the cure for what ails us is another shot of the hair of the dog that bit us in the first place -- more oil and more coal. (Imagine these guys as councilors at AA. "Here have an other shot of bourbon, you'll feel better right away." They'd be "right" and yet very wrong all at the same time.)
Rather than heed the growing signs that we are toying with eviction, they want to drill in Alaska, or anywhere else where there might still be some oil left to exploit, sell and burn. Global warming, they contend, is not a sign we've bitten off more than we can -- or should -- chew, but rather earth's normal menstrual cycle.
"She's just a little cranky right now," conservatives seem to believe. "She's just having a period of hot flashes. She's done it before. Don't worry, she'll calm back down at some point."
Which is, of course, just an exercise in whistling past a graveyard -- in this case, potentially our own graveyard.
Anyway, that's all I had to say. I have to get up now and close all the doors and windows. It's 8 a.m. and already 80 degrees outside. My chickens, rather than foraging for bugs in the front yard, are huddled in the shade under their hen house. They'll be fewer eggs today, that's for sure. The chickens know something's screwy, even if conservatives don't. (And let me tell ya, there's no dumber animal on a farm than a chicken.)
Meanwhile my TV, tuned to MSNBC, is filled all day with people furiously debating whether working class white people in America will vote for a black candidate. These highly-paid TV-thinkers differ mightily on the point, and seem entirely consumed by the question.
Maybe I'm just a ninny and a worry wort, but mighten it be more prudent if instead they where talking about how to fund five-year, peddle-to-the-metal, Manhattan Project-type R&D push for sustainable, renewable, non-polluting alternatives to oil and coal?
Because, I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend the 30-odd years I might have left on earth watching a billion or more fellow humans getting "evicted." And, of course, I don't want to my kids and grandkids getting evicted later themselves if we persist in this nonsense and push things past the tipping point.
Melting ice caps might be the most dramatic evidence that we are already dangerously close to just such a tipping point, but it's not the only evidence. Just ask the folks in Tornado Ally, and Burma. They have tales to tell. They've already gotten their first eviction notices.
Stephen Pizzo has been published everywhere from The New York Times to Mother Jones magazine. His book, Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans, was nominated for a Pulitzer.
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