When I was cavorting along the Appalachian Trail as a blithe teenager, I never thought I would someday be a woman of a certain age. But there you are. Blink your eyes, and you're a geezer.
One thing about being a geezer, though: It's possible to remember past decades. In my case, I can vividly remember an entire half century.
This is why I can state with absolute certainty that the climate has warmed.
Where are the motherfuckers who deny this? Oh, snap! I forgot! They're in the White House. It's basically the Orange Menace, his Big Oil baron buddies, and the natural gas and pipeline lobbies. They say global warming is a hoax. I cry bullshit.
The Menace is even older than I am. Can it possibly be that he has forgotten frosty Octobers, when the leaves peaked in color the second week of the month? I've lived in various parts of the Mid-Atlantic most of my life, and I clearly recall that Halloweens in the 20th century were cold affairs, possibly with snow and definitely with skeletal trees that had lost every leaf.
Last fall my sister was photographing autumn colors well into November -- a full four weeks later than it used to be.
I wore a sundress to work today. I had to, because it's in the 80s and my room has no air conditioning, only a scant two plastic fans. My students were miserable. And so was I.
It wasn't only the ungodly heat that made me miserable. It was the thought that my students and my daughters are becoming adults and will live with this ever-hotter world, no matter what we do.
I'm rather baffled that anyone over the age of 50 can be a climate change denier. What about your own four senses? Your own memory?
Then I thought, "Well, maybe the changes aren't as noticeable in other parts of the country." Until I heard from my friend in Detroit, complaining about yet another day in the 80s, last week!
I lived in Michigan for four years in the 1980s. It was crisp and cold by mid-September. The trees were bare by early October. It snowed until May.
Storms! Look at these storms! Do you remember a time when we had year after year of killer hurricanes and superstorms? I. Do. Not.
This November, and every November, you should vote Green. I don't mean Green Party, I mean your vote should be for Planet Earth. For poor dear Gaia, Demeter, sweaty Danu!
One more thing before I conclude my rant and go suck some raw eggs.
I am totally convinced that scientists have developed green energy systems that could be put in place within a decade. But their ideas, their technology, is being squashed by the billionaire oil interests. Let the whole world fry, while they rake in the ducats for themselves and their families.
Just answer me this, Mr. Oil Billionaire: What exactly will your great-grandchildren inherit? Pardon my cheek if I suggest they deserve ebola Zaire.
I don't need to have manners anymore. I'm old. And mad. Where's my bludgeon?
4 comments:
Your bludgeon? No, no, this is a job for tar and feathers.
PUNCH ALL THE NAZIS! PUNCH ALL THE CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS!
Whereas men turn old and become nostalgic in their sixties, women come into their prime: Older women become the history keepers and the gate keepers for the young. They are the glue - the matriarch of families.
the Ol'Buzzard
As you know, we are working on an invention that will bring solar electricity to many more people. (our first product will be a charger for electric cars that can also be a backup generator for the house when the electricity goes out.) We have not been able to acquire any funding. We have applied for grants, which were awarded to ideas much duller than ours.
If we have something as revolutionary as this, surely many other garage inventors have marvelous things brewing, that are also languishing for lack of funding. Our government should be funding many of these, because if only one in a hundred pans out, the program will a)pay for itself, and b) be worth doing.
--Kim Cooper
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