Recently published in the paper of record were two letters that caught my attention – “we need to take a serious look at this very sobering report from the world’s climate experts - there is no longer any meaningful debate about the effects of human activity on our climate”; and “just when the need for stronger actions to mitigate the dangers of global warming are becoming more urgent, we have an administration that at best will do nothing" …and hasten "the looming disaster”.
While the dialogue may at times change when convenient from a hard-core climate denial to a more nuanced “uncertainty” about the extent to which human activity impacts the change that is occurring, in the end isn’t the result the same and our options precious few no matter who or what is to blame?
Below, I’ve juxtaposed recent headlines from this paper of record with the lyrics from “Blind to the Truth” a song written by Dan Fogelberg, words as relevant today as when first written nearly 30 years ago. (PLEASE CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO CONTINUE READING.)
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A Crack in an Arctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 Miles in the Last Two Months In the overcrowded cities where the nights are bright as day You spend your weekly paycheck and turn your eyes away From the crisis we've created with our self-indulgent ways Living like there's no tomorrow, well, that just might be the case
How Big Banks are Putting Rain Forests in Peril Now they're tearing down the forests in the jungles of Brazil Without a second thought about the species that they kill But extinction is forever and still the forests fall And push it ever closer to extinction for us all
Polar Bears Path to Decline Runs Through Alaskan Village But you're so blind to the truth, blind to the truth And you can't see nothin' 'Cause you're so blind to the truth, blind to the truth And the Judgement Day is comin'
As Donald Trump Denies Climate Change, These Kids Die of It Now the politicians bicker on the early evening news Pledging their allegiance to whoever they can use And the corporate bosses snicker as they watch the profits soar They don't care what they make next month just as long as it is more
Falcons, Drones. Data: A Winery Battles Climate Change They take our farms and marshlands, drive nature to the wall Just so they can build another goddamned shopping mall And it doesn't seem to matter if we cannot see the stars Just as long as they can keep on building obsolescent cars
Scientists Glimpse New York’s Perilous Path in an Ancient Patch of Marsh They're so blind to the truth, blind to the truth No they can't see nothin' 'Cause you're so blind to the truth, blind to the truth But the Judgement Day is comin'
Fish Seek Cooler Waters, Leaving Some Fishermen’s Nets Empty Now you cannot drink the water and you cannot breathe the air The sky is ripping open and you still don't seem to care The soil is tired and toxic and unable to provide The clock is running out and there is nowhere left to hide
The Great and Dying Barrier Reef Now there's laws that we must live by and they're not the laws of man Can't you see the shadow that moves across this land? The future is upon us and there's so much we must do And you know I can't ignore it and, my friend, neither can you
Earth Sets a Temperature Record for the Third Straight Year Unless you're blind to the truth, blind to the truth And you can't see nothin' You're so blind to the truth, blind to the truth But the Judgement Day is comin'
Earth, the Final Frontier |