Changing Climate

 IT HASN'T RAINED in nearly two weeks in my neck of the woods, the heavily wooded American lower Midwest. Throughout this past spring it was very rainy here, and also through much of the summer. I loved every minute of it, but kept wondering whether august would come, the rains would dry up, and we would sink into a long, dry drought. And that may be exactly what is happening here, where quite a bit of rain is needed throughout the growing season to sustain all the trees, streams, and lakes we are blessed with. Within the past twenty years, there have been two or three years during which the trees started turning brown in August and we were ordered to seriously conserve water. It was a frightening situation. The extreme drought heat, and fires becoming year round in the American west is an alarming confirmation of the fact that climate change is already here; we can expect much more of the same in the next few years. We can also expect the area suffering from extreme drought, heat and wildfires to expand also, essentially to the rest of the United States, in which no area will be safe from this cataclysmic combination of nightmares. Obviously not every heat and drought by itself proves the reality of climate change; but a warmer average temperature for everywhere in the world every year for the past forty years certainly seems to be strong evidence. Senior citizens and meteorologists all will tell you that the climate has changed drastically, that our weather patterns today are nothing like they were fifty years ago. Also, the rate of change seems to be increasing, meaning that over the next several decades climate change will become so extreme that violent weather will become the norm, not the exception. So now we are talking about carbon neutral this and carbon neutral that, making a lot of noises about the impending disaster; but not yet really doing much about it. Each year the amount of carbon poured into the atmosphere increases, adding to the problem. Whether or not you have grandchildren, think about those do. Whether or not you are young, think about those who are. Future generations can only exist on this planet if we the living start taking drastic action now. Sometimes it almost seems as if we the currently living are content to merely live out the rest of our lives, without concern for future generations, knowing full well that by the time climate change becomes so extreme that life becomes impossible, we will be long dead. Humanity must become "carbon neutral" soon, and must remove much carbon from the atmosphere. The good news is that its possible.