Talking About Climate Change

THE THOUGHT OCCURRED TO ME, perhaps a bit belatedly, that if one intends to spend the rest of one's life running around like some sort of alarmist predictor of future events, harping on climate change, which is precisely what I fully intend to do, that one might be better off to be prepared to face the consequences, such as rejection, isolation, alienation. The one thing that nobody seems to want to talk about or to even be willing to talk about is climate change, which is happening right before our very eyes, and is obviously going to have a big impact on all of us, on everyone's life, soon. The most frightening thing about global warming, which is the same thing as climate change and may be used, arguably, interchangeably, is not only the inevitibility of it, but the fact that we are already getting a taste of it, a taste which does not bode well for the future, if recent trends are any indication. The problem with global warming is that once it has gotten started, how does one stop it? Global warming began more than two hundred years ago, with the modern industrial revolution, as everybody knows, and, as everybody also knows, the United States is currently the worst offender at polluting the Earth's atmosphere with carbon and heat. The irreversable inevitability is that climate change is going to get a lot worse, soon, and fast. That is indisputable. Our winters are soon going to seem like our former summers, and our summers are going to seem like the Arbian desert, no matter where you live. And yet, for the most part, we the human species seem to be generally ignoring the problem, at least, in terms of the average man on the street, who, after all, is the human race. We just go about our daily business, our petty personal concerns, while the planet fries. What the science community seems to be telling us is to get ready to learn how to survive in a much hotter world. And that's about it. Get ready for a much hotter world, because its coming, and there aint a damned thing we can or are gong to do about it. You don't hear scientists in general talking about ways to reverse climate change, although certainly they must be. I got an email the other day from some organization evidently proposing ways to reverse climate change: I haven't even opened it yet, so, I'm as bad as anyone. Just knowing, however, or believing that somewhere on this planet people are actually inveitng ways of reversing climate change and implementing those ways gives me hope and encouragement, so, I guess I'll keep right on pretending that people are actually doing this, even though I have no idea whether anyone is or not.

We, Changing Weather

AS I HAVE STATED many times over the past few years, October used to be a winter month where I live, in mid south America, a cold weather month, with a lot of cold rainy days and temperatures often below freezing, especially late in the month.It seems to me that all that has changed now. Where I live, October has become, over the past fifteen years or so, a warm weather month, indeed, a summer month. For me, October is the month during which climate change rears its ugly head more than at any other time of year, and the climate where I live has indeed changed, a great deal, in recent years. In the four state area of Kansas, Oklahoma, arkansas, and Missouri, especially the Ozark Mountain region in southenr Missouri and northern Arkansas, winter is seemingly milder every year, with but a few exceptions. It hardlyever snows where I live anymore, and it used to snow fairly often, three or four times every winter, if only a couple of wet, sloppy inches which melts almost as fast as it hits the ground. What I have always liked about where I live is that we have a winter, but that it is not a too terirbly severe one, like, say, Mminnesota, Canada, or Alaska. I wouldn't want to totally eliminate snow from my life, but I don't want too much of it either. Maybe in teh future, hell, perhaps even the near future, we'll all get to vote on what kind of weather we want next week, and the government, the WMA (Weather Modification Agency) by law, must comply with the majority. I mean, hell, at least that would be better than having some half crazy evil Hitlerian dictator issue daily weather commands. I am struck by the fact that the climate is so obviously and rapidly changing, and also, that apparently I am going to live to see a lot more change, soon. The question is not only how far can and will the human race go in reversing climate change, but who will be in charge of the project, other than some multi billion dollar American coropration, or Elon Musk. If you've lived a few years, and seen some weather, say, several decades of it, and you happen to remember what the climate and weather were like say, in the nineteen fifties and sixties, you know for a fact that climate change has occurred and is occuring. All old people agree on that. Many of them, however, seem to think that there's nothing that we can do about it, that the climate is going to do what the climate is going to do, no matter what the human race does - while in act, human activity, amazinly but truly, is the cause of global warming, aka climate change, and can be, and must be, changed, post haste. Rush Limbaugh, whom nobody seems to remember, used to say that the forces of nature are so enormous and the human race is so puny by comparison, that it is absolutely inconceiveable that humankind would or could ever bring about great harm or destruction to the Earth's bio system, no matter what. Rush Limbaugh, of course, was a total moron, a complete pedestrian intellect who fancied himself a genius, as do many mediocre men, such as, for instance, the nation's current president. October is now a summer month, so, what next? Will winter turn into summer? Will winter go extinct? That seems to be precisely what is happening, verifiably. It really is time for we the human race to remove head from sand and address our own manufactured climate change now, before its too late, as it might already be. We have not slowed down on polluting the atmospnere, and everything else. So far, its all talk, even though there does seem to be a certain slowing down, or levelling off, of human consumption and pollution of resources. There are hopeful signs. Plastic is being dredged out of the oceans. Capturing carbon before it spews into the atmosphere is a coming thing. We clever humans can probably clean up our environment, and stop polluting it, by using, say, disposable, biodegradable plastic of some sort. Any gambler worth his salt is going to tell you that he won't lay odds on the chances of long term human survival, for good reason.

Time, Running Out

I HEARD THIS ON NPR, as I am sure many people did, that scientists now estimate that we have about seventy five years left, environmentally.I did not hear any exact explanation of what this entails, but the impression I got is that they are saying thet the Earth's ecosystem, under currrent conditions, has about another seventy five years before collapsing totally, and making life on Earth no longer possible. Collapsing into unliveable heat and violent, unsurvivable climate conditions. I'm not sure whether they are assuming no change in our curent lifestyle, or, whethter thhis prediction is based on a hypothetical and highlyunlikely possibility that we humans get our act together soon, and change our way of living, and start taking good care of the ecosystem, rather than destroying it. I must assume that scientists give us a much better chance in the unlikely event that we humans suddenly change our ways, and stop poisonously pollutting the Earth's air, water, and soil. If you look at the way humanity is treating the Earth's natural environment now, and that way we have been treating it for a long time, one thing is obvious; if we don't make drastic changes now, we are going to cause the extinction of all life on Earth, but if we make a concerted, global effort, with everybody cooperating, we still have time to save the ecosystem, and ourselves, or, more precisely, our descendants. For those of us already here, we got lucky. We were born early enough to get in and get out, so to speak, before human industrail activity, and modern human society, brought about the complete destruction of all life on Earth, through environmental destruction. Not only must we prevent AI from taking over the world, we must prevent naimstream human civilization from destroying the delicate ecosystem through over population, environmental destruction, brought on by rampant, unbridled, unplanned levels of material prosperity inefficiently utilized. With more than nine billion people and counting on the planet, and approaching three billion automobiles on the world's streets and highways, it has become obvious to everyone that the automotive transportation system must be replaced by mass transit and bicycles. And that, of course, is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. We're going to have to stop burning down rain forests and natural habitit and replacing it with concrete jungles. For a healthy planet, it seems probably that at least two thirds of its land area must be reserved excluxivly for nature, aka, eeveryling thing except human beings. We have taken more than our fair share, and msut start gving something back, for the sake of our own survival, or rather, the survival of our descendants.

Not Fearing God

GOT UP EARLY Sunday morning as I do every morning, fed all the cats, including the gathering outdoor strays, then hopped on the treadmill after a couple of cups of caffeinated black coffee. I went thirty minutes, then stopped deliberately, wanting to save something for the statiorary bicycle. I ended up doing thirty on both, and felt great, like maybe having another workout later today. Decided to stay home this morning, and adopt a worshipful, devout, God leving frame of mind, and exude it. This, rather than atttending any particular church, mindful that I like them all. I do a lot of cardiovascular work, on the treadmill and stationary bike, and although I keep telling myself to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather while jogging or running or walking around the neighborhood, I always end up on the treadmmill and stationary bike, because they are so close at hand, and so easy to just hop on and start. Not a bad fitness and exercise regime for a seventy one year old, if I do say so myself, knock on weed. Evolution, and a willingness to experience it, is key, it seems to me. You'll simply have a different exercise pattern and routine in your seventies than you did in your twenties or teen years or childhood. From the time I was a toddler, I have been wanting to move around, use my legs, as I think most people probably do. My friends at the senior center who ask me how to start an exercise and fitness program, and I tell them, first, stand up. Instead of sitting down, stand up. If you're watching television, do it standing up, instead of sinking down ever deeper into the couch. Or, if ou just can't get off the couch, at least stand up every few mintutes, and maybe walk back and forth across the room a time or two. The point is to get off your ass and move your body, which is what its designed for. For most of my life I have seen people my age or younger who were way overweight, and obviously in poor shape fitness wise, with no exercise habit. Its very common in the United States of Apathy. Being in great shape, running five miles a day, and all that, doesn't guarantee anybody is long and healthy life. Absolute not. But, generally speaking, it doesn't hurt either, to be in shape, to get a lot of exercise of at least a decent amount, one way or another. My sister line dances. I've seen people do that, and I hereby endorse it. A cup of three of regular coffee certainly helps wake me up, as it does millions of cimilarly drug using Americans. Caffeine is obviously a powerful mind altering drug, which happens to be my favorite, and the favorite of millions of hard working hard working out Americans. I like to exercise early in the day, to set the tone for an energetic productive day. I see folks at the senior center in a fitness class, which meets for fifteen minutes twice a week, about half a dozen people, who sit in chairs and twiddle their thumbs and rotate their wrists. A husband and wife sit in chairs at the front, facing the class, and model the exercise. If I had anything to do with it, I'd get 'em up out of their charis, and move 'em around a little bit, including the old slow ones. They can all do that. Hell, maybe once around the town square, just outside...

Getting Back On the Bike

MY STATIONARY BICYVLE broke down a few months ago, so I have been using the one at the senior center two blocks from my house, which is a good arrangement for me. Yesterdya a good friend of mine happened to drop by for a visit, and he repaired my stationary bike, no problem. I think a chain had fallen off or gotten disconnected from the axel or something like that. At any rate, I'm back on my bike looking out the window of my computer room spare bedroonm, happy as a lark.I like the bike at th senrio too, and there may be days when I ride thirty minutes on my bikd at home, then, drive the two blocks to the senior center, and ride their bike for another half hour. That is precisely the sort of thinking I am crazy enough to do. I am a big stationary bike enthusiast as I said, but I really freer bikes with arm attachment, so that whil you peddle withoyr legs, you alsopush and pull metal bars back and forth, working out the upper body also. The repair that my bike neded was simple; simply reattach a nut and bolt type connection, but I had neglected doing it, in typical laxy form. Thank goodness for friends. Esercise is either tha ost important part of my life, or among the most important, and has been for decades. I am grateful for it all. There is a treadmill and a stationary bike at the senior center, and there is one of each in my house, the treadmill is in the dining room, and the exercycle in the second spare bedroon of a three bedroon house; exercise and fitness are built into the decor of my house, which, fortunately, has no carpet, but rather all hardwood floors except for the kitchen, dining rooom, and bathroom which are tile. As I refer for teh grand adventure of living inot my mid seventies and pperhaps beyond, the value of exercise is becoming increasingly clear to me, although it has always been evident. Few people have as little natural athletic ability as I. Strangely, that has never really mattered to me, From the earliest time I can rememer, I was hanginf out with bigger, older kids, usually the smallest and or youngest in the ball game. That's the kind of situation which'll improve ya. My interest in exercising, running around chasing a ball or just looking at the scenery is as fun for me now as ever, more so, asthetically. The sparebedroom - cmpute room wher my stationary bike sits looks at a window into my fron yard, which is full of trees I planted twenty years ago when I guilt the house, and are now full grown, beautiful, and totally dominate the front yard, making the hosue permanently shady, which I certainly do not mind. All my neighbors have huge trees right next to my property and house, so, my house is always well shaded, which as I said I prefer. More often than not I am certainly not going to get out of bed, ride thirty minutes on myexercycle at home, than go and do the sema thing at the seniore center. But, sometimes I like to do things a bit differently. Maybe I'll still be ridig a stationary bike when I am ninety, or a hundred. Maybe I shouldn't think about the future too much, since, as Einsten articulately uttered, it always arrives soon enough. For the tiem beieg this exercise habit-hobby-addiction is perfectly fine and pleasant for me, so, I shall continue with it. Knowing full well that it won't last forever, since nothing does.

Awakening To Rain

I was awakened in the middle of the night to the most beautiful, pleasant sound I coul dhave imagined; that of rain falling gently but steadily on the ground, and the roof of my house. Here in the great Amerian lower mid west, or the northwest south, whichever you prefer, we have been stricken with a long drought, and just in the past couple of days rain has arrived to save us. I live in the foothills to the Ozark Mountains, in heavily forested rolling hills, with many small streams and rivers, in a very small town on top of a plateau, altogether a pleasant locations and environment. I haven't travelled the world, but I have travelled the United States, and in my opinion the U.S. is an incredibly beautiful country, naturally. The human additions additions to the landscape are of course dabatable in terms of what they contribute to the landscape, whether we Americans and our America makes the land more or less attractive,is the topic of potential intense, heated, intelligent discussion and debate. The older I get, the more amenable I am to talking about the weather, or writing about it, in which case I always and inevitably include climate change in the conversation. If somebody says to me "have a nice day" I might say somethig like "this is one of those days when I kinda like climate change". If nothing else, that kind of comment has a chance of making people think.The people I pa attention to, and there really aren't all that many people in my life, either face to face or through the media, but thsoe that I know never seem to mention global warming or climate change, much less actually talk about it. And when on some rare occasion thay actually mention or talk about it, they usually fail to cut to the chase, preferring instead to make some flippant off hand semi serious or non serious blather. The fact is, as things stand no, we're toast. By "we". I mean humanity and all other species. By now there should be a comprehensive, world wide project well underway to save the planet by reversing and stopping global warming--climate change, because if we don't, we're toast. Each year is about one degree hotter than the previous. As things stand now, within five years the summers are going to be unliveable, wich daily chorching hot temperatures, week after week, month after month. It isn't going to be pleasant or pretty, and we are going to see it, soon. What we humans must do of course is to change our society, clean up the planet, and take better care of it, and ourselves. Billions of automobiles spewing tons carbon into the atmosphere every day is a dead end, and we are fast approaching it. Electric cars, mass transit, and bicycles are, we pray, saving us just in the nick of time. The remaining climate change doubters must accept reality, and notice that climate change deniers are, overwhelmingly, politically conservative and religious. When your political or religious viewpoint prevents you from acknowledging reality, like, say, climate change, you definitely have a problem, intellectually, if not emotionally. I hope I live a while longer, but know that my time is running out. While I am still here, I want to encourage myself and everybody to live joyfully and harmoniously. Although we still seem to have no real idea precisely what we and the univese are, we are sufficiently perceptive to sense its magnificence, and to be appreciative of it.

Controlling the Weather

I WAS AWAKENED in the wee hours by the most delightful, beautiful sound imagineable to me; that of a thunderstorm in progress, with rain beating down upon the roof and ground, and beautiful, rolling thunder. I have gotten into tha habit of rejoicing every time it rains in my part of the country, because in recent years, for some reason, I have developed an enhanced fear of drought, even to the point of starting to become paranoid if and when it fails to rain for a couple of weeks or so. It seems to be that over the past several years droughts have been more common and severe where I live, and that much the same is true particularly in the western part of the Unietd States, where it has traditionally, at least for the past several thousand years, rained less than in the eastern part of the country. Climate change seems obvious to me, and seems to me to be clearly happening where I live; longer, hotter summers, shorter, milder winters. Worst of all is when spring consists of that one day of perfect weather between bitter windy winter and hot, humid, dry summer, as one of my professors put it. To me climate change seems to be happening extremely fast, and I begin to wonder exactly how much more climate change I will live to see, at seventy one, in good health, with a world of medical marvels supporting me, at least supposedly. One thing I think I have noticed is that humanity is not solving the global warming climate change crises fast enough. A lot of hat, and no cattle, as they say in Texas. Your average Joe on the street doesn't even seem to know or care that within a few short years, Earth's environment will collapse, by which is meant that the climate of the whole planet will change drastically, and become more violent, with supercharged straight line winds and storms. Drought stricken areasr will becoem even more dessicated, monsoon and storm seasons around the world will intensify, as the number and strength of tornadoes and hurricanes increases with the extra heat energy in the atmosphere. At leasr twenty five yeras ago I read a comment from Dr. Michio Kaku to the effect that humanity will eventually be able to control the weather, and will therefore do pecisely that. I wonder if he still believes that, and, if so, if he has any notion at all of precisely this will be accomplished and expidited. Something will have to be done about sea level rise, which, if we don't do something to stop it, will within a few decades inundate millions square miles of land in ocean water, cutting deep into human habitat, unless of course our descendants decide to build cities on and under the oceans. Currently the world is experiencing a mysterious absence of hurricanes in the middle of Atlantic hurricane season, knock on wood. Somehow you sense that thi is only a temporary phenomenon, that all too soon, the hurricane machine will ramp back up, and start turning out storms off the African coast and send them across the Atlantic, just like normal. "Normal" climate patterns are changing, partly due to natural forces, partly because of human activity, and those who refuse for ideological reasons to accept this verified reality are only deceiving themselves, and giving themselves a good excuse to do nothing to help.

Leaving A Trace

ONE THING I DO is write and publish online one page of non fiction prose each and every day, at a minimum. If nothing else, some future historian might learn something from it; the personal habits of the early twenty first century American lower classes, or something like that. Sometimes I wish everybody would write his or her autobiography, or make a film describing his or her life.At the moment, admittedly, there doesn't seem to be any doubt that our current early twenry first century historical epoch will be well remembered and documented, magnitudes of times better recorded and woven into the fabric of human history than any and all periods of time before. I am a historian, and taught history for years at various schools, to various grade levels,and am painfuully aware of the propensity of young people to be disinterested in history. Let's remember that the way to make history interesting to young people is to make it interesting and fun, which it inherently is in any event, so, perhaps the task of a history teacher is simply to avoid ruining history by making it boring drudgery and work. In my days in graduate school studying European history I was required to take a class called "Historiogralhy" in my masters degree program. The class is essentially a sutdy of the historical professions, the "history of history" so to speak. It turned dout ot be an interesting class, learning about the most prominent, seminal historians and their works within the particular area of history, in my case, modern Europe (1815-present). Early modern Europe is usually considered to be from 1500, when several features of our modern western civilization emerge and come into play, to the preent. At least, that was the classification scheme in 1980 when I got my masters degree, and I think it still is. The Protestant Reformation, the rise of nation states, the economic expansion of Europe, and European colonialism characterizes the changes around that time which ushered in the modern world. History is a story told by a storyteller, usually in a book.I love listening to a good history lecture more than reading a good history book, although its close. Our (my) descndants might marvel that we in the early twenty first century still got in our cars, and drove hundreds and thousands of miles at high rates of speed, and that world wide, approximately one million people die doing this, and that yet, this doesnt seem to faze us, each day we pile into our cars and go speeding off down the road, wherever we wish. Surely that situation won't continue much longer. How can it? Trying to drive cars which spew no deadly poison into the atmosphere is crucial, and the best bet might be to quit driving these individual vehicles altogether, to rely entirely on mass public transportation. IN the long ago year twenty twenty six we were still damaging the Earth's ecosystem, but becoming increasingly aware of the harm, and tryng to change our ways, which, with any luck, and, we had better hope, happens fast. One milllion people killed in car crahses every year is hard to believe. When I consider that I was born and lived during the era in which people started traveling in outer space, I feel grateful. It is encouraging that there are conversations ongoing concerning threats to life on Earth and how to mitigate them. I want to leave more than a mere trace. I want to leave a thriving, healthy human culture.

Preserving Ourselves

THE PROSPECTS for human survival, which is a topic of great interest to me, are, in my opinion, fair to decent. Obviously the greatest threat to human existence is humanity itself, through nuclear war, bio-chemical or chemical warfare; we humans have a seemingly unlimited number of ready to go self made suicide methods for our species. When you consider that that human history has almost been a constant litany of warfare, and you consider the human propensity for organized violence of all kinds, one can only logically conclude that our species is perfectly capable, and arguably perpetually on the brink of self extermination. Obviously, the human species is nowhere near getting rid of war in general. It seems to be too deeply ingrained, built into our basic instincts and behavior as a species of defensive, often violent, predatory animals. We have been assured by none other than Bill Gates himself that as of now, nowhere in the world is there Artificial Intelligence of any sort which has escaped, gotten out of the lab, and is acting independently, on its own, without human supervision. Comforting as this is, it might not be quite comforting enough for some, myself included. I am thinking about the speed with which Artificial Intelligence appears to be advancing, progressing constantly, virtually guaranteeing that within the next few years, computers of remarkable power and intelligence will become part of our lives, one way or the other. Precisely what way is, of course, the penultimate question. What Bill Gates did not tell you, but what he knows very very well, is that the cat is out of the bag, the cow is out of the barn, the computer is out of the laboratory, out from under human control, and, at this point it appears highly likely that computers will start reprogramming themselves, communicating with each other, thinking for themselves, and developing their own ideas and strategies, and making their own plans. Another question is; will we humans be part of those plans? Bill Gates acknowledged in an interview that computer technology, Artificial Intelligence, is advancing at a super fast, prodigious rate, all over the world, without any sort of global cooperation or agreements among people and nations concerning what the ultimate goal is, what we humans are trying, exactly, to do with all this computer machine intellihence. I for one, would like to know. For one thing, let's keep computer power and Artificial Intelligence out of the hands of petty tyrants, dictators, and criminals and madmen who would only use it to take advantage of and hurt other people. Who precisely, if anybody, among human beings, can be trusted to have control over powerful computers? Can computers ever be trusted to have self control? That's a question we may need to think about before its too late, if it isn't already.

Worshiping Alone

THIS WEEK I failed to arrangement for a ride to church, and since I really don't care much for driving, I think I'll stay home and appreciate, revere, and give thanks for this amazing life in the privacy of my own home,and the internet.One does not have to go to church to express love, gratitude, and admiration for the supreme being. "My religiosity consists in humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit which reveals itself..." as Einstein wrote so eloquently. The most truly spiritual people probably don't really need or have a strong desire to attend church, but rather, to contemplate the amazing universe in which we live, the miracle of nature. Which raises the question: "why does the universe, why does anything exist"? And, of course, it may well be that nothing exists, that this seeming life in this apparent universe is nothing more or less than a dream, the great dream of the great dreamer.I can have a nice little worship service here at home, alone with my cat Mandi.It will be entirely mental, contemplative, and brief. My true form of existential appreciation this morning will turn out to have been in part my time exercising on my treadmill, which, after a couple of cups of good coffee, I am definitely in the mood for. Caffeine seems to be my drug of choice. I drink regular coffee every morning, and then burst forth upon the world in a glorious blaze of activity, usually exercise. This is a gorgeous day, warm and sunny, a good day to go running outside. For the time being, however, I think I'll hop on the treadmill and look out the kitchen window as I slowly but steadily turn up the speed on the machine and end up getting a good work out. This is also a great day to go out to the lake, and maybe hike or jog the trails, or along the highway, and it is a great day to merely walk out the front door, and start walking jogging or running along the road, at whatever pace feels best. As almost all regular runners doubtless know, whn running one can actually lapse into or settle into a sort of meditative zen state, with a very clear mind, and the oxygen producing mental state of exhileration, or "runner's high". Its very real, and its very pleasant,largely because of knowing that you have earned it. If we humans manage to avoid destroying each other, our dscendants might have an opportunity to enjoy a wonderful existence, bucolic, artistic, richly culturally rewarding, adding ever more to what they inherit from us. Einstein was once asked to contribut a message to a time capsule to be opened in one hundred years, sometime in the middle of this century. He wrote: "If you have not become kinder and more compassionate than we were, may the devil take you." Based on that criteria, you'd have to say that there seems to be a good chance that the devil will take us. Amazingly, we humans do indeed seem to be becoming less violent, more peaceful, over the centuries, statistically. Hard to believe, but statistically true. So, maybe there is hope. I like going to church and in the future will probably, for the most part, go. But I also relish being at home with a hot cup of coffee and a soft warm fuzzy kitten. There is still tiem to go to church if I decide I am willing to drive over there. Wither way, the important thing is to anjoy and appreciate completely every moment of every single day, which can be difficult but is always possible, and do basically the same thing at home I would be doing in church, giving thanks.

Accepting Climate Change

ONE OF THE PRIMARY PURPOSES of this essay website is to clearly highlight and elucidate the reality of global warming, climate change, call it whatever you may. Whatever you choose to call it, or whether you choose to accept the reality of it,it very obviously, conspiculously exists. I have been closely monitoring climate change where I live, which is southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. The basic fact, the basic reality, is this; you simply cannot do what we humans do on this planet without changing its ecosystem by pumping billions of kilowatts of heat into the atmosphere on a daily basis. We need to change our societal ways, and we ar beginning to do it. The question is, are we converting to a non fossil fuel energy economy rapidly enough? Solar energy is above all other kinds what we most need to develop and increase. In a single sunny day, solar energy pours into the Earth's atmosphere enough free, clean energy to run the planet for more than a single day. For much more, in fact. It should, with the development of solar energy, be possible to provide more than enuogh energy for everyone. The answer to climate change is to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Apparently, the necessary technology to accomplish this is now within striking distance of our scientific understanding and development, We humans began putting carbon into the atosphere in serious amounts since the eigtheenth cenutry, when the industrial revolution, witih its massive numbers of coal burning plants and stoves, spread throughout Europe, polluting the atmosphere, blackening the air, concentrating the manufactured wealth in the hands of a vanishingly small elite, and ruthlessly exploited the masses with the tyrannical, dictatorial imposition of brute labor and low wages. People who don't want to redistribute the manufactured waleh of modern society throughout society relatively equallly are of course teh ure capitalists, those who do want to have the government redistribute the wealth can be anything from centrists to liberals, to socialists to communists. depending on dagree. For some people to have more material or financial wealth then others is perfectly understandable, in a capitalist economy. Absolute economy equality is, most folks now believe, impractival to implement and operate effetively. A society in which everyone has a chanve to make a meaningful contribution through work, and in which everybody is guaranteed a minimum standard of living regardless of circumstances is worth striving for, still, and always. Scientists tell us that we can't do much no about stopping or reversing climate change, that instead we will have to work on developing ways of coping with it. That means living on a hotter planet, one on which both polar icecaps have vanished, melted into ocean water. A snow and ice free world.. My grreat grand children may hear funny strange stories from the past in which his great great grandfather bruised his knee in high school sledding during Christmas break, 1972-73. There will come a time, soon, unless we do something, when there will no more snow and ice on Earth, it will have all melted. I think we should do everything in our power to reverse and stop climate change, while adjustng to it.

Changing Our Behavior

SPONTANEOUS EXPRESSION has its value, within limits. Class, your assignment today is to write a one page essay describing what you did last summer, and why. Its due at the end of class today. Begin. Conversation tends to be spontaneous expression, since one never knows what one's conversation partner is going to say, and a response must be created on the spot. Spontaneous essay writing is probably theraputic, on some level. One can even forget to bring or lose one's reading glasses, and get by. My thoughts invariably return to climate change, at some point, but I can write about many other topics also. Getting rid of Putin, Trump, and several current world leaders is a project worthy of widespread acceptance and support, using the pen, always, and never the sword. I really want my future, remaining conversations with people to be rwearding, agreeable, and worthwhile. To meet that criteria, a conversation does not have to include climate change. However, any conversation which does include climate cahnge, between any two people, is beneficial, because it increases people's awareness of the situation, awareness of the dreadful current situation we are in regarding the Earth's ecosystem, climate system, the health of its land, air, and water, the health of the planet generally, ecologically, environmentally. Although you cannot honestly, verifiably say that the Earth's environmental health is good, you certainly can say that it could sure as hell be a lot worse, if we keep going the way we are now, and don't change our behavior, a lot, fast. I also need to remember that when I talk about this, I am talking primarily to myself, knowing that I can imporove my behavior alone and nobody else's. At some point, for instance, it probably would be a good idea to give up driving, if I live that long. I really don't think I want to be driving a car when I am one hundred, if I live that long. Our internal combustion engine cars need to disappear fast, and be replaced with electric cars, mass transit, or whatever. Bicycles are best. In this, as well as many other ways, the United States should be more like Japan, China, and Europe. What I see as I approach the end of this life is a planetary ecosystem suffering and collapsing because of human activity, pollution of all kinds, as we seem to be plumeting towards our self destruction. At this point I hope I live to be a hundred, close to it, or whatever. At seventy one I am in good shape and health, and I think I can function well, productively, and independently for a long time to come. I want to live long enough to see the day when we humans know for sure that global warming and climate change are not a threat, and that we humans have found ways to stop them. Human nature is complicated, with destructive and creative impulses both. If we choose wisely, our species can survive.

Enjoying Fall

I LOVE THESE BEAUTIFUL soft warm, lazy autumnal days, when it gets close to eighty in the day time and down to about fifty at night, nice and crisp. Although some nice, steady, soaking rain would be wonderul, and is just what we need in our drought stricken part of the country, it is nonetheless a beautiful day, if a bit warm for this time of year. As I keep mentioning, the monthof October over teh past coupld of decades has tansitioned from being primarily a cold weather month, to being a predominately warm weather month, almost like an extension of a never ending summer. A never ending summer is precisely what is predicted according to climate change theory, aas climate science. The way things are going, the general trend in recent years, has been for the winters to be less frigid, warmer, and the sumrers to be longer, dried, and hotter, as if we really neeed any more of all that. I can remember more than sixty years of weather, close to seventy, and yes, it certainly seems to me that the climate where I live has changed, quite a bit, and I would hazard a guess that most folks in my general age category (I am 71, a baby boomer) would agree with me, that over the past fifty years, the climate in the lower mid west has definitely changed, with summer getting hotter and longer, and less cold ans snow in the winter time. Around her we used to get snow several times each winter, if only a couple of inches most of the time, real soft and fluffy, the kind that melts fast once it starts to melt. I can remembr when September was always either about ten degrees cooler and less humid than August, but it seems nowadays that September has changed totally into a summer month, more like August, with not a trace of Autumn. Like most people, spring and fall are my two favorite seasons, although I have nothing against summer or winter. WE have many deciduous trees where I love, and they often become beautiful in their bright fall colors. this year, though, is bound to be a disappointment, because with our continuing extreme drought, most of the leaves are gonig to be on the ground vry soon. They are falling fast, helped by the drought. My sister and I used to joke about the fact that our mother talked incessantly about the weather. in any conversation she got involved in, the weather was almost certain to be mentioned, because mother would almost certainly mention it. I seem to be becoming that way myself, late in life; weather oriented, nearly always have something to say about it during a normal, everyday converstation. I love and appreciate the beautiful diversity of weather we have here, hoping that our future weather is pleasant if at times volatile, and that the changes it makes are likewise pleasant.

Reversing Climate Change

EVERYDAY I see a new layer of leaves covering the yard. Each late afternoon, when the leaves are dry and the hot October summer temperature starts to go back down below ninety ( and yes, its crazy having ninety degree daily temperatures), I spend a little while raking up leaves, raking them into small piles, then, putting them in garbage cans, sometimes it seems like one leaf at a time. Maybe this is what's keeping me off the streets and out of trouble. The drought we have been having in the American mid south is quite serious in my yard, and, pesumably, everywhere else within a few hundred miles of Mo-Kan Ok-Ark region to which I am long accustomed. One of the arguments I use trying to convince conservative, climate deniers and idiots that climate change is very real is that I don't have to wait for somebody or anybody to tell me about it, to tell me that climate change - global warming is real: I am experiencing it in my own back yard, daily. If I can do it, anybody can do it. This current early Autumn drought is as far as I can recall the most severe drought we have ever had durig this time of year, and is becoming one of the msot severe drought at any time of the year around here. I recently heard a number given for the percentage of Americans who deny that climate change is real, who believe, or claim to believe, that global warming is a lie, a hoax, a liberal trick of some sort. We have all heard or heard of people who actually believe that nonsense, or say they do, for some reason, perhaps because they value stupidity as a human virtue. IN the U.S.A., climate change deniers are always, invariably, political conservative. Of all the seemingly non- sensical, insane claims made by internet types and American conservatives is that climate change, global warming, is a trick, a hoax,a ploy by American liberal Democrats to give more power to the government, or something like that. Recet polls tend to indicate, I believe, that the percetage of conservtive American who deny climate change is decreasing, and that the percentage of conservatives who accept and acknowledge it as reality is slowky but stedily increasing, thank heavens. There will come a time, fairly soon, when people will be amazed when they read history books about the early twenty first century, and discover the shocking number of people who refused to accept climate reality, preferring to embrace an obviouslly false version of reality while ignoring and thus doing nothing to help actually fight climate change by doing something about it. That, we are indeed capable of; doing something about global warming, namely, stopping it. It would help immmensely if the whole population would "get on board" and encouage the global effort required. We can do this, but only together, all humanity.

Still Obsessing

EVERYONE would agree that a person needs to stay busy to stay happy. That's especially important when one is quite young, and when one is quite old. Both physical and mental activity are necessary to stay sharp and healthy. The old people who never stop moving seem to be the ones who live the longest. AS I age ( I am now seventy one, and doing well), I am, probably justfiably, increasingly proud and grateful to be at this particulae age, which has been my lifelong tendency; the older I am, the cooler I am, and whatever age I am, that's the right age for me to be, the proper age. I have a feeling of having been born at the right time, and living my life in perhaps the best time of all time. To have been fourteen years old, a bright and curious teenager, when Armstrong walked on the moon was exhilerating, exciting and the memory of it remains the same nearly sixty years later. My good luck in life started early; I was born asthmatic, with allegedly weak lungs. I had asthema pretty bad a few times, and spent time in what they then called an "oxygen tent" if you happen to know what those were and perhaps still are. My parents told me that they asked the doctor whether I would live, and she said yes, he'll grow out of the asthema. Darned if she wasn't right. By the time I graduated high school asthema was long behind me. I am grateful to have grown out of it. IN fact I hae big, strong athletic lungs, "runners lungs" if you will, as if over my life time I have been compensating for my lungs shaky beginning by growing big and strong. Actually, I have been exercising vigoroslsy my entier life time, starting when I was a little ied, and loved running around, chasing balls, playing games, etc..At my local seior center they have a wide variety of activities involving exercise for the members, which is vital cn crucial for the health of a good senior center. They have a little physcial fitness room in the back, which doubles as a storage room. It has a couple of stationary exercycles, and treadmill, and one of those skiing machine, whwer you move you rfeet and legs on thess pedastals as fi you were skiiing or skating or something. I haven't don much of it so far, but I have tried it a little, and I can tell that its great exercise. Maybe I can gradually work into it, start using the ski machine, since, after all, we have one.