"...or hear the rising tide."
As the debate over the language of climate and the political correct ways as to how we talk about the weather continue, many of us sit and watch our grass die and listen to stories of drought, super-storms, record-breaking temperatures (both highs and lows) and wander around our back yard in December without a coat.
The weather is changing. So is the composition of our planet. Weather patterns are changing. But so is the way in which we drill. Fracking is leading to earthquakes in Oklahoma. Water is poisoned by mining. Flint Michigan can't catch a break (I think if this water crisis had happened in, say, LA, it would have been fixed in a week), and we feel the weather is different.
Our environment is changing in so many, many ways. On a different level, our social systems are changing - breaking down perhaps or reshuffling to be sure. But in our technological advances we are isolating ourselves. And we have become (at least in our country) so self-absorbed that we don't pay attention to what is happening around us unless it affects us directly - and then we learn that other people just don't seem to care.
But the weather, the one thing we can all talk about, is pointing to the fact that the planet is speaking to us. When we humans find our temperature rising, it means we are fighting some kind of illness. Perhaps the planet has a fever and we are the cause. Overpopulation, poor utilization of resources, and the endless ability to push responsibility to the next generations have continued to foster a planet who doesn't seem to be feeling well.
In 1994, Pink Floyd released the album The Division Bell. On that album was the song "Take it Back." It was a thinly veiled message that we need to get our ecology in order. Why? Because the planet earth may very well decide to shake us off. Not to say the planet has a consciousness the way you and I do, but as an organism, it will function like an organism. And the planet may move to return to a state of well being that does not have us on it. As Pink Floyd sang, "She might take it back some day."
That day may be closer than we would wish to imagine.
Of course if we don't talk about it and ignore what is right in front of us, then maybe we can ignore it into non-existence. Or we may just wake up one snowy day in August or one blistering day in February and find that the planet has adapted to our invasive-ness and changed the playing field to get rid of us completely.
She might take it back. She might very well indeed.
The weather is changing. So is the composition of our planet. Weather patterns are changing. But so is the way in which we drill. Fracking is leading to earthquakes in Oklahoma. Water is poisoned by mining. Flint Michigan can't catch a break (I think if this water crisis had happened in, say, LA, it would have been fixed in a week), and we feel the weather is different.
Our environment is changing in so many, many ways. On a different level, our social systems are changing - breaking down perhaps or reshuffling to be sure. But in our technological advances we are isolating ourselves. And we have become (at least in our country) so self-absorbed that we don't pay attention to what is happening around us unless it affects us directly - and then we learn that other people just don't seem to care.
But the weather, the one thing we can all talk about, is pointing to the fact that the planet is speaking to us. When we humans find our temperature rising, it means we are fighting some kind of illness. Perhaps the planet has a fever and we are the cause. Overpopulation, poor utilization of resources, and the endless ability to push responsibility to the next generations have continued to foster a planet who doesn't seem to be feeling well.
In 1994, Pink Floyd released the album The Division Bell. On that album was the song "Take it Back." It was a thinly veiled message that we need to get our ecology in order. Why? Because the planet earth may very well decide to shake us off. Not to say the planet has a consciousness the way you and I do, but as an organism, it will function like an organism. And the planet may move to return to a state of well being that does not have us on it. As Pink Floyd sang, "She might take it back some day."
That day may be closer than we would wish to imagine.
Of course if we don't talk about it and ignore what is right in front of us, then maybe we can ignore it into non-existence. Or we may just wake up one snowy day in August or one blistering day in February and find that the planet has adapted to our invasive-ness and changed the playing field to get rid of us completely.
She might take it back. She might very well indeed.
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