Our country began the new century and the new millennium with an election that put the losing and inferior candidate in the White House. It did even worse in 2016. We are now the country that is making the worst, reactionary contribution to destructive climate change as a result. Because the people of this country are too preoccupied with consumerism and self-absorbed "happiness," I hold no expectations that things will get better. We just keep on popping out babies in an over-populated world and tossing our plastic trash everywhere. Species are becoming extinct and some of them are essential to our own survival. Looking on the bright side is like looking at the sun, it leads to blindness.
Given my assessment of the state of humanity and the planet, I shall continue looking at art, listening to music, enjoying the presence of loved ones, experiencing the ever decreasing natural beauty of our world, reading novels, and having a nice meal now and then. My life will be over soon enough, unlike the lives of my students who face decades of ever worsening politics, environmental disaster, and wars. Sugar-coating reality creates more poison, don't you think?
FORBES.COM
6 Compelling Reasons Climate Change Might Be A National Emergency
An Aside:
Many of my dear friends post good news and optimistic news about clean-ups and improved environments, efforts to deal with plastic pollution, etc. I applaud those stories and wish I could go along with them whole-heartedly. Alas, as a researcher, I have to follow up the memes and photos with a deeper look at the claims. Sadly, I find the good news is really limited, or more bad news than good, or naive, or not backed up by science and evidence. Memes are the worst source of information. Certainly there is good news worth sharing; but again, as I said above, Always looking on the bright side, like looking at the sun, can lead to blindness.
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