NAME YOUR POISON: A Serious Reflection of here and now.

Yes, from The Princess Bride

If  you don't think this applies to you, it     does.

 

  

We--by action, inaction, consent, default,         ignorance and other ways--are killing ourselves.

It's a strange, beautiful, wonderful world we live in, filled with so many good creatures and wonderful ideas. But we, God's receivers of all these gifts, are literally poisoning ourselves in so many different big and small ways.

We don't have to be bad to do bad, and most of us aren't.  We can be innocent bystanders. But even bystanders have obligations. Sometimes our actions are biased, prejudiced, naive, unconcerned, unbelieving short-sighted and more. And yes, more often than not, we are bad actors.

But in our own way, we are the killers.

Global warming... *or not: Does it matter what you call it? In Death Valley, California it was 135 degrees for three days in a row. That is verified, the hottest temperature in the recorded history of our world. I can cook a roast in my crock pot at that temperature. 

Our last decade was the warmest ever. Our warmest six years have all been since 2015 with 2016. 2019 and 2020 being the top three. June, 2021-- just one month ago-- was the warmest month ever. Go figure.

The drought, the lightning and the fires: What should we call this ugly phenomena? New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd suggested "The Day After Tomorrow was Yesterday" would be an apt title. Seattle was 108 degrees, British Columbia unbelievably hit 121. The world is experiencing 'once in a lifetime' rains, flooding and drought as weather patterns have changed. Forest fires world-wide are more ravaging than ever in places that have never seen this before. Smoke from our fires in the West have darkened New York and East Coast skies. The dire climate fears scientists have warned are coming in 10 or 20 years are already here. 

And this is just a foretelling. What will next year be like... and the following? 

Destruction of natures' balancing act: Oil companies making billions of dollars mining the Niger Delta region in Nigeria are leaving ruin and devastation for the natives in what once was once one of the most incredible ecosystems in the world. The Amazon rain forest in Brazil is combating continuing major loss by man's hand of this treasure that was a key weapon in combating greenhouse gas emissions. These things are happening world-wide as never before.

Greta Thunberg

Some deniers have delighted in the mocking of Nobel Special Award recipient Greta Thunberg as she continues to raise the cry. 

There is discord and the lack of common good: The United States and much of the rest of the world has no common ground on which to build. You would think survival and critical times would be a universal enemy, but we, as a people, seem not to believe even that. 

The pandemic... and the ones to follow: We, in a general sense, seem to hate each other, just because. With the every day problems we face even before we tackle the greater problems of mankind in general, we can't seem to get to first base. We can't decide to wear a mask or not, get vaccinated, or disbelieve on principal or suspicion, or, as I said, just because.

We are a gun totin' country: In the United States, 316 people are shot by a gun every day. And of them, 106 die. There have been 147 mass shootings--defined as four or more shot or killed, excluding the shooter-- in America already this year and we still have five more months to go. We are awash in illegal 'ghost guns' (firearms without ID markings, easily hand made or otherwise) popular by those who use them in every illegal way. And, if any legal gun is purchased, half of the buyers are not 'background checked.' We still legally sell weapons that can easily be converted to fire 20 or more rounds in seconds. 

We do not have an issue with those who own and use legal guns acquired legally. But make no mistake, we do have an issue.

Then we have water to contend with... and water has no master: Because of global warming, an enormous chunk of ice has this spring broken off the Antarctic ice shelf. The floating mass covers more than 1,600 square miles making it the largest iceberg in the world... so far. For comparison, that is just a little shy in size of the state of California which is 1,637 square miles. Already water is encroaching on the world's shores and experts' projections warn this is just the beginning. Even inland Chicago is at a point of no return with water control problems as man is no master of nature. This incredible video tells that amazing story. Mother Nature isn't done with us... not by a long shot.

The Golden Rule is now defined as "He who has the gold, rules." And money talks... but not for everyone,  It originally read "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Remember?

So which poison is it that proves a tipping point? 

The ray of hope is that we become more aware every day of the things we can do and while an unsatisfactory course is already upon us, know the worse can be altered. We are taking some positive action and making progress, but the tide against us is fast-moving and relentless. And not everyone is of the same belief and/or as willing to make the effort and sacrifices required to alter a perilous way forward.

I hope and pray we strongly advocate for the better, lead when we can, be vocal to those who need to know how we feel, elect those who believe, and work with the empowered to take this challenge seriously. Time's a'wastin'.

The universal question should be, "What will we leave our children?"

*Note of caution to those who do not believe in global warming: Be careful if you are near the edge of the earth so you don't fall off.

How many bricks to a gallon?

Illustration A

 In California, the drought is so bad that my favorite sister in San Rafael had to put another brick in her toilet.

That makes five now. It just breaks her heart how the bricks scratch the porcelain bowl as they swirl counter clockwise into the sewer with each flush. And at today's price of bricks, going too often could break the bank, she tells me.

Hey sis, I think you're putting them in the wrong place. See illustration A above.

OK, serious now. With almost 3/4ths of the earth covered in water, how come some have too much and some too little?

The Pacific Ocean from as seen from space

One of the most amazing things I ever saw was this shot of the Pacific Ocean from space. WOW! With four more oceans left to fill the rest of the hemisphere we don't see, where will we find room for land?

While the Earth's surface is 71% water... and more than two miles deep in the Pacific's Mariana Trench (which is 1,580 miles long and 43 miles across--take that, Grand Canyon) water is only .025% of the Earth's mass. If Earth was represented as a 12" diameter globe, the average depth of the oceans would be no more than the thickness of a piece of paper.

 So while the water on earth might seem an endless resource, there is far more earth... with a thirst that all the oceans haven't been able to resolve. Fact: There are 2.5 billion human beings of our 7 billion population-- more than one out of three of us-- who lack ready access of clean water to drink... and they just die--literally--trying to quench their thirst.

Wanna see something that helps defines the conundrum? Actor Matt Damon and Gary White founded water.org . Watch their 2:50 minute video. Then ask yourself: If more than 1 out of 3 of us are living day-to-day for their next drink, are we, as sated human beings, ok with that?

And no, we cannot all move to Canada. It is important that we recognize we are the "haves" and that comes with responsibilities.

"If we are not our brother's keeper, at least let us not be his executioner."
Marlon Brando