Changed My Mind (About Climate Change)

Since this is already a nation of eedjits on a crash course with the environment, I've decided to change my mind about it all. My position on the question is as follows: the current menu of human cultural and economic activities known generally as global capitalism has already accelerated the warming of the earth's climate past any hope of either arresting or stabilizing it, and to such a degree that the collapse of our recognizable ecosystems, global economies and entire cultures is inevitable sooner rather than later.

"It was that fart in the feedlot that finished them."

Given the long and careful attention of the world's scientific community to the question, given its well-documented consensus, such a claim, to be taken seriously, no longer needs documentation in a rational community (present company excepted), any more than a biologist's claim that conclusions in the biological sciences rest firmly on evolutionary biology, needs documentation. QED, as far as I'm concerned. When time has run out, bullshit doesn't deserve equal time.

I'm not exempting myself from my minuscule part in the responsibility for this impending collapse. After all, I'm a large primate with a utility bill and a monthly gasoline allowance, and I don't kid myself that riding around on my bicycle, as I like to do, is going to save the planet. My rides aren't all that "epic."

But unfortunately, while the realm of established and certain fact is not a democracy, such questions of critical policy require to be put to a vote by the paid industry hacks and suborned shills for corporate influence who represent our "interests" in Congress. The sanctimonious futility of our national response promises to be at least as suffocating as the disaster itself: Illinois Representative John Shimkus, a failed candidate to head the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in his House hearing for the post preferred to maunder on about his child-like theological views rather than engage in an adult discussion of cap and trade legislation and intelligent energy policy:

 

The journalist Chris Hedges apparently shares my dread of the impending forays of frenzied evangelicals into climate science, observing just a month ago that, "as the collapse becomes palpable, if human history is any guide, we like past societies in distress will retreat into what anthropologists call 'crisis cults' [which] will unleash further collective delusions, such as fundamentalist belief in a god or gods who will come back to earth and save us."

 "Who's your Daddy?"

For my own part, I figure I may as well ride the wave of desertification and warmer winters into oblivion, floating down the River of EndTime on an inner tube with a parasol-decked cocktail in my oversized plastic cup holder. One thing I've learned - it's never too late to adjust your horizons, lie back and enjoy it. Even if you can't change climate change, you can always change your mind.

(With thanks and apologies to Reggie)