Global Catastrophes
What happened to the man who felt the water at his knees?
What happened to the woman who ignored the rising seas?
What happens to our planet if only ignorance sees?
Humans pass the “tipping point”: global catastrophes!
© F.W. Heaton. April 2018
This is the first in our April/May 2018 trilogy of blog posts on the subject of Global Climate Change. The “tipping point” phrase in the fourth line of our poem above refers to “components of the climate [disappearing Arctic summer sea ice, melting Greenland ice sheet, dying boreal forests, et. al.] that may pass a critical threshold, or ‘tipping point,’ after which a tiny change can completely alter the state of the system,” possibly inciting “catastrophes ranging from widespread drought to overwhelming sea level rise.” (Quote taken from Environmental Defense Fund article.)
Mary & I recently returned from a trip to Florida to visit with family & friends and work in discussions with officials/persons deep (sorry, for the pun) into the subject of global climate change. When you’re in coastal Florida, Virginia or Louisiana, it doesn’t take long to internalize that cities built over the last two hundred years at sea level will have their way of life/existence threatened if sea levels rise even a few more centimeters, let alone the possibility of a few meters. The immediacy of global climate change demands effective, worldwide action now. The world needs the United States to be an informed, committed leader in this effort now. Sadly, wealthy and powerful individuals in our country within industry and government, many closely tied to or supported by the oil, gas and coal industries, have helped split the “United” States along ideological lines, making a united attack on these forces more problematic.
Our hope? We hope to encourage our readers to demand our national, state and local government officials commit to and achieve effective/sustained “United” States climate change leadership. In previous blog posts, we’ve recommended you consider supporting Earthjustice (earthjustice.org), an organization with top flight lawyers in court every day in support of environmental protection and conservation. They have achieved a sterling rating of 93.37 (out of 100) from Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org), the respected watchdog that examines/rates organizations asking for your donations. For those of you who might be so inclined, please click the below button; it will take you to fascinating studies in progress on these topics along with suggestions as to how you might help.