There. I said it.
Yes, you should be concerned and you should be worried (see above).
The U.S. will not lead when it comes to the climate crisis. Do NOT depend on them.
I am a U.S. citizen. I can see that we are no longer functioning properly. Our government is run by politicians who are frozen in place and can no longer address big issues efficiently and calmly (I’m speaking of the Senate). Our democracy is being terrorized. And the issues are multiplying. We currently stand on the brink of land war with Russia. We bounce from one covid frenzy to another. The economy, while delicately stable, stands on shaky political ground. All of the leaders in one party are hellbent on destroying the entire country in order to maintain their money, power and control.
Every aspect of American culture runs counter to the needs of the planet. We are greedy, spoiled and unable to make even the smallest sacrifice to save one another, let alone the entire ecosystem. Understand, there are MANY good people in the U.S. (the majority, actually) who will do the right things. They just are not a part of the power structure.
That said, I am cutting my losses and moving to align with global entities. I would love nothing more than to see the U.S. pull itself together. We have the most brilliant scientists in the world. But we also have some of the most authoritarian and lying (to the point of cartoonishness) politicians. Therefore the citizenry is broken, disinformed, and confused.
We have run out of time for dealing with selfishness.
The heart nebula (photo courtesy of my husband) is 7500 light years away. The nearest star is 4 light years away.
We are floating in the middle of nothing (well, dark matter, but let’s not get into that) in a distance so vast that we cannot really even comprehend it. And to date we have not found life anywhere else.
Not anywhere else in the explored universe.
That means that no one is coming to save us.
All the red in this chart? That is caused by our exploitation. We thought we could take and take and never give back.
We cannot.
In 2022, on this website, I promise to bring you as much actionable information as possible. If we cannot depend on governments or businesses, then we will march on without them. Because we don’t have a choice.
We absolutely need a new way to live on this one tiny Earth, incomprehensibly far from any other means of life.
The most severe risks as identified by the Global Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report for 2022 are the following:
- Climate Action Failure
- Extreme Weather
- Biodiversity Loss
- Social Cohesion Erosion
- Livelihood Crises
- Infectious Diseases
- Human Environmental Damage
- Natural Resource Crises
- Debt Crises
- Geoeconomic Confrontation
To me, it is clear that these are all inter-related.
Feel free to read the report yourself.
It is actually quite readable at 117 pages. Lots of colors and graphs, and explanations.
I am not a great fan of the World Economic Forum–wealthy people issuing proclamations, while still maintaining outrageously consumptive lifestyles. Always better to stick with the IPCC report, listed in my Resources section.
Still, none of these are issues that can or will be solved by a single country alone. Nor will anything be solved by just a small group of people (regardless of how smart–or wealthy–they may be.) It will take all of us, moving past governmental, societal and geopolitical boundaries.
Power to the people. There are 8 billion of us. Don’t tell me we can’t make change without a few politicians.