Washington’s partisan politics is running at fever pitch over the debt, deficit and the debt ceiling, and in the meantime the nation is overheating literally.
This added warmth doesn’t arise from the differing political views, but rather from the earth herself and the sun that is beating down upon her. As the political class fights over the purpose of government, the country is in denial about the threat of global warming.
There are some, because of their desire to shrink government, who cannot affirm the reality of global warming because the government is really the only entity with the clout and authority to do something about it. So, with heads hidden in the sand, we fight our battles while refusing to face the ecological catastrophe quickly overtaking us.
While the Southwest bakes in triple digit temperatures without hardly a drop of rain, =the Midwest and East Coast sit under an unprecedented dome of hot, humid air. Meanwhile, the political trajectory of the nation remains focused on how to demonize the opposite political points of view and refusing to face up to perhaps the most damaging and expensive problem the nation has ever faced. “Greek Tragedy” cannot fully describe just how catastrophic is the folly of our ways.
Many experts in the field of ecological and meteorological sciences are beginning to conclude human dependence on carbon-based fuels that is causing the world’s greenhouse affect has now crossed the line of a possible retreat and we're now going to have to learn to live with the repercussions of our polluting ways. Given the growing human population and the growing industrialization of what was once called the “Third World,” it appears now impossible to limit the amount of carbon dioxide we pour into the air and the seas in such a way as to retreat to a level of safety and sanity.
The characterization of humanity’s overuse of carbon-based fuels is two fold. First, from a practical point of view, it was, is, and will be economic and political. We have grown dependent on carbon-based fuels because, at least on the surface, they are relatively inexpensive and, until the present, easily accessible. Coal and, more recently natural gas still are relatively cheap. Of course, there are many hidden costs, not the least of which is the toll on human health. These hidden costs will continue to make themselves more and more prominent, especially as we face the price tag from ecological disasters that are becoming more and more prominent.
Where there are large economic interests at stake, there also is its political bedfellow. In most instances, the political/economic coalition concerns profits for the carbon fuel industry and power for the politicians. They have a symbiotic relationship that caters to each of their needs at the expense of everyone else and of the natural world.
It is this marriage between the political and carbon-based fuel industry that has kept us from acting preemptively when we were warned of the impending ecological disaster at a time when we really could have done something about it.
The second perspective of our dependence on carbon-based fuels is ethical and moral. It is ethical because we do not have an agreed upon system for relating to the environment.
For the most part, Western Civilization has had an attitude toward the world that can only be described as exploitive. Except for the arts and a few romantics, we do not have a relational and familial sense of ourselves as a part of the environment. We view the world as other. We are estranged from Earth and that is, perhaps, the cause of our current tragedy.
Because we do not have an ethical understanding of our relationship with the earth we behave immorally. We exploit the earth and her creatures without any thankfulness or remorse. As with all immoral acts, justice will eventually play her role in the scheme of things.
Ecological justice will reset in balance what human hubris has thrown into disarray. There will be a price to be paid for our immoral behavior.
It behooves us, as we face the tragic results of our misguided misuse of nature, to prepare for the increasing pain of heat waves, droughts, floods, blizzards, and even the inevitable famines that will occur around the world.
If we do not plan and prepare for what is to come, the few at the top will survive and even continue to profit while the majority of the human family and the vast numbers of earth's creatures will suffer. It is time to step out of the River of Denial and take responsibility for a world that we have mistreated.
