Monday, April 09, 2007

Future Uncertain


The future seems to me the most uncertain it has been since I was a young child in Hull, England during World War 2, when that city suffered horrendous bombing. The morrow was uncertain for many at that time, never mind the future.

Most astrologers now foresee chaos of one kind or another on the horizon, due to Pluto's move into Capricorn in 2008 and subsequent aspects of other outer planets, not to mention the dreaded 2012, end of the Mayans' long count calendar. For a concise and clear rundown on the astrology the late Maya del Mar's article "The Road to 2012" is as good as any I've seen. It was written a year ago.

It's not hard to guess the source of potential chaos in the world. Yesterday my husband's daughter e-mailed me an article about global warming. I've found a copy on-line HERE. It tells of experiences of mountaineers who've come face to face with the effects of global warming. For me, reports of real experiences such as these bring the situation more sharply into focus.

A blog called Earth Meanders written by Dr. Glen Barry is well worth reading. It's serious stuff. He pulls no punches about global warming. George W. Bush should be required to read that blog once a day, every day! My only minor argument with Dr. Barry's writings is his view that Al Gore and his "celebrity" helpers are not doing much good. Dr. Barry is probably so far ahead of the average American in knowledge of what's going on in the climate, that he doesn't realise the good Al Gore and co. have done in the past year or so. As something of an outsider, I can see it quite clearly.

When I first arrived in the USA at the end of 2004, global warming was looked on as something of a joke here. I despaired. I can see, now, the enormous difference Al Gore has singlehandedly made, in a short time. When "An Inconvenient Truth" first arrived in cinemas in Oklahoma, it was shown only in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. We travelled to Oklahoma City, about 75 miles away, to see it. The number of people in the theatre could have been counted on two hands, but that sparse audience rose to their feet as one at the end of the film, applauded, and uplifted my hopes.

Since then, global warming and climate change have been in the news on a regular basis. The American government is still dragging its feet, and appears to be lagging well behind public opinion, but in 2008 that government is guaranteed to change. I hope that its successor will be strong enough to do what's needed, however unpopular it makes them.

We may not get to the stage of being uncertain about the morrow in the next few years, but those who come after will have that to face, if we don't insist that something is done by world governments soon.

4 comments:

Barry Goddard said...

What I think the politicians are getting wrong is that the whole broad environmental thing has been turned into this one issue: CO2, which may or may not be a problem.

I've also recently dropped out of the apocalyptic way of thinking about the environment. I simply can't live like that any more. It's a huge relief, and maybe I'm deluded for doing so! But it feels like I've got part of my life back.

Anonymous said...

I find it endlessly fascinating that in so many places in N. America people shop in places where everything, including their food is wrapped in plastic.

I think politicians are ridiculous. Thanks for the post, Twilight!

Twilight said...

I well understand how you feel, astro-t-t. It can be like a dark shadow following you around.

My way of fighting off the shadow is to have a rant now and again. It helps a bit.

The CO2 issue and how much it contributes to the problem is never going to be conclusively proved (like astrology). I suppose the bottom line really is that Earth has become greatly over-populated, and any climate change whether man-made or from natural causes will impact severely on food, water and habitable space for us all.

Efforts to slow down the rate of change are the only way open to us at present, unless some scientist comes up with a miracle.

Twilight said...

Yes, Chrispito. It's frustrating, and there's nothing we can do about it. Plastic has its benefits, but it has taught us bad habits.