The Green Summer of '19

Evening from Snokomo Road

It has been a beautiful spring and summer so far. There was a week of 110 degree heat index days that caused everyone to move slowly. When I heard myself complaining too loudly, I thought of the people in Europe and India who were (are) suffering extreme heat without American air conditioning. I felt pangs of guilt knowing my energy consumption is contributing to global warming. I cannot be responsible for everything though it feels sometimes as if I am. Of course, we are each responsible for our own actions. To perhaps offset my air conditioning costs to the planet, I have slowed down 5 to 10 miles an hour on the highways, trading some of my time for less gasoline consumption. (Yes, it pisses people off when they are stuck behind me, but they are saving fuel, too. They should thank me instead of giving me the finger.)

Beginning with the snows in October of last year, it has been a time of abundant water here. The sound of flowing water has only recently ceased. The creek is still flowing but it is silent to my human ears. The agony of the bizarre winter floods in Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa was frightening, the angry waters made even more devastating with huge boulders of ice. Livestock drowned trapped in their pens and pastures. It seems particularly cruel when the innocent suffer for our arrogance. We have known burning coal releases greenhouse gases to the atmosphere since the 18th century. Joseph Fourier, (Mar 21, 1768 - May 16, 1830) is credited with the discovery of the greenhouse effect. Our best minds have known about this problem for quite some time now. You can be certain that every modern scientist and engineer on the planet since the mid-20th century has intimately understood the greenhouse effect - every engineer employed by the big coal and gas conglomerates - every engineer employed by every large and small utility company across the planet - every automobile engineer. "We" have known it would be an enormous problem. For any politician on the planet to deny the science and ignore the threat we are facing is unconscionable.

The Dalai Lama said we did not know but now that we do, we must take care of our planet. When Kansas is as lush and green and fertile as it is this summer, how can we not look at it and marvel over the magnificent gift of this planet? How can we possibly ignore that it is our fault that thousands of species are going extinct - plants, insects, fish, animals of all kinds? Perhaps most egregious is the suffering of the whales, the greatest sentient beings in the solar system. As far as we know right now, whales are the largest sentient beings in the universe. With our pathetic wars, in our frail humanity, whales are continually hunted, poisoned, tortured. We cause them to become deaf with underseas radar, weapons, location systems, and with the frenetic search for more oil. Many whales are starving, either with bellies full of plastic or due to our over-fishing the oceans. How arrogant we are to think we could live on a planet devoid of the full web of life.

While I am deeply nourished by this green and golden year, I wonder just how many more times in my life the weather conditions will be favorable for such a beautiful season. Maybe never.