Making the Best of A Bad Situation, PART II

WE ARE CONFRONTED with the reality that we are living on a planet whose life force is ebbing, a dying ecosystem. Where I live, there is a drought ongoing. An April drought had, until recent times, been unthinkable. I recall April of 1990, when it rained everyday throughout the month, also a rarity, but more in keeping with our geography than drought. In recent years we have had at least one prolonged drought every summer, sometimes more, but never in April. You get a foreboding feeling about the coming summer. Many areas have it much worse. Europe, for instance, which is warming at what is apparently twice the rate of the rest of the planet. European heat waves are becoming unendurable. To quote Lenin: "What Is To Be Done"? What we seem to be doing is to resign ourselves to the impending collapse of the ecosystem in the hastening, cascading global warming, and to take comfort that the worst of it will be the inheritance of our descendants, that we ourselves will not have to live to endure it. Small comfort, but, it'll have to do. This attitude of resignation is reflected in climate change books now appearing in print. For example: "Under the Sky We Make: How To Be human In a Warming World", by Kimberly Nichols, Ph.D. The title says it all. This is a well written, incisive work, worthy of scrutiny, conveying the "make do the best we can" approach. Another new title: "Diversifying Power: Why We Need Anti-Racist, Feminist Leadership On Climate and Energy". OK, fair enough. Hell, we'll try anything, or should, according to the author,Jenine Stephens. At first, it seems a bit cryptic, making a connection between climate and energy policy and anti-racism and feminism. And yet, the connection is made well. But, again, the hint of resignation, of trying to change course on our relationship to the enviroment by changing the way we think, act, and govern ourselves, all in the name of dealing with climate change by getting by as best we can, rather than by reversing it entirely, and returning the atmosphere to its intended, natural state. Corporate patriarchy has not and does not work; why not try the nurturing, healing approach? Increasingly, people are becoming aware that no matter what we do, we are destined to experience adverse climatic circumstances in the future. Even if all burning of fossil fuels came to an abrupt end today, the carbon already in the atmosphere, and the effect it is already having and will continue to have, is unavoidable. Climate change, to a large extent, is "baked in" to the equation, as scientists sometimes put it. There are, of course, other perspectives. Oxford scholar Hannah Ritchie recently published a book with a much more positive viewpoint, in which she indicates that real changes are being made, and that the mitigation of future climate change has begun, if belatedly. The plan, an ambitious one, is to phase out internal combustion engines by the year twenty thirty. Indeed, this seems overly optimistic. Maybe it isn't. The reality is that fossil fuels are likely to be a major part of the global economy for as long as the next half century. So, as always, the choice become a personal one. Whether to be resigned, hopeful, or perchance, both. Some experts and authors point out that we as individuals can make a difference, through changing our personal habits, but only if a significant number of us are willing to do so, which is questionable. Meanwhile, we are left to make do as best we can, with what we have. A verse from a poem by Bertolt Brecht comes to mind. "In the earthquakes to come it is to be hoped that I shan't allow bitterness to quench my cigar's glow." As for me, I think I will take that approach.