Dear Editor,
In past weeks, there has been unending talk about Gaza and Ukraine. Trump’s threats against Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Iran, Greenland and Canada. The end of NATO with Russia and China at our digital borders. And things just seem to keep getting worse and worse.
But, in a very real way, these are all just side shows. Humanity has become passengers on the Titanic – arranging seats on the deck while singing “Abide with Me” as the world sinks beneath the waves.
It seems we welcome the diversion of wars, so we don’t have to face the elephant in the room of climate disaster.
A short time ago, famed environmentalist David Suzuki warned against putting any hope in international ‘agreements’ on climate control. He declared that battle over. We have lost. He said not to bother with national or international projections for a carbon-free future in some fictitious world of 2030 or 35 or 50. Nature is no longer waiting for us. One poetic soul observed, “The Earth no longer holds us in her dream”.
What Suzuki advocated is turning toward the governments closest to us – municipalities. The governments which will have to deal directly with the catastrophes and calamities – such as we faced in the Ice Storm of 1998. Except the disasters we will face soon will extend well beyond 21 days and could last for months and years. How do we run hospitals without power? How do we obtain food without trucks? How do we obtain clean water without delivery systems?
It is entirely possible human civilization is coming to an end. Five major ‘extinction events’ have taken place over the past 500 million years. Many scientists believe humans are responsible for a sixth. I tend to agree, but what gives me hope is that the Earth always repairs itself and comes back even stronger with greater variety and resilience than before. And so, it will again ….. just, without us.
ian hepburn
