You Can't Breathe The Air Here Today
It makes me angry at writers who keep screaming about the planet dying and it makes me question whether writers have any responsibility for their words.
You can’t breathe the air here today. That’s no exaggeration.
The air quality index in Canada is on a 1-10 scale, where 1 is a normal day and 10 means don’t go outside, don’t breathe the air and, especially, do not let children or the elderly go outside. Their bodies can’t take it.
We’re at a 10 today.
When I went to pour my morning coffee, the sun was a red ball in the sky.
If you mixed blood and ashes and diluted it enough to make a thin, dull reddish grey color, that’s the color of the air.
There are 880 wildfires burning across Canada, and 530 are out of control, which means they can’t stop or contain them anymore.
Basically they just have to pray for rain. But we’re in a drought.
Most of Canada is uninhabitable to begin with. It’s the second largest country in the world, but 80% of it is “inhospitable to humans” — that’s the phrase they use. Most of us live in a little strip across the bottom of the country, just above America.
Almost 20 million acres of forests have burned this year. It’s the highest year on record and it’s not even forest fire season yet. It’s usually worse in August.
Here’s what no one talks about. Wildlife.
Easy enough to say close the windows, don’t go outside, don’t let children and the elderly breathe the air, but what about the wildlife? They don’t have somewhere to go inside and close the windows.
My yard is silent. No birds chirping at the bird feeders. They’re hiding, but I want to scream there’s nowhere to hide. I don’t know what we’re going to do about it.
I wonder how many years it will take before there’s not enough bees and pollinators left to pollinate our food. I don’t know that, either.
Here’s what I do know.
Some asshole is going to hurry over to Medium and write another “omg, the planet is dying” post and thousands of people will click and read, the same way they watched the towers fall over and over every time the news replayed it every hour on the hour. Disaster is always good for clicks and views.
Incidentally, if you know someone who posts that crap, I ask that you use no names because I would not want to find my name disparaged on someone else’s random blog and I won’t have that here. There’s little enough civility left in this damn world.
Here’s what makes me angry.
It makes me angry when writers push pain buttons day after day, post after post, with zero consideration for the mental toll of their words. Where are the solutions? Where are the links to resources?
(Side note — yes, I know I don’t have a list of resources here, but I am not chicken little and I do not write that the sky is falling on a regular basis.)
It begs the question whether writers have a responsibility for their words and I don’t have an answer to that. I’m not sure there is one.
The solution that works for me is mute and unfollow.
I won’t miss them in my feed, but I know it’s mutual. They won’t miss me, either. There’s plenty enough who’ll click and read because disaster whispers our names. Come, look, it whispers and we do.
I hope you’re well. I hope you can breathe the air where you live. If you’re the praying type, please don’t pray for me. Pray for rain. We could use it.
And thanks.
On Medium…
Thanks for reading. If you enjoy my writing, click the heart to let me know. ❤️
xo,
Linda
I'm in central Texas in scorching heat and ongoing drought. We need rain too.
Old timer's have a saying, "In Texas we live and die by water."
How true that is, not enough or too much all at once.
THINGS WE CAN DO TO COMBAT THE CLIMATE CRISIS - RIGHT NOW.
If you’re already thinking that you, as an individual, can’t affect anything, then be reminded of people, individuals, who went on to change the world: Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Emily Pankhurst, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jnr.
You CAN join that gang. All it takes is working smarter not harder.
FIRST PRIORITY
The number one PRIORITY should be to force these #ECOCRIMINALS
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change
to PAY:
• REPARATIONS (to the individuals/communities devasted/harmed by BigFossilFuel actions)
• FINES (to those nations/governments where BigFossilFuel committed their crimes)
and then have those criminal corporations SHUT DOWN FOREVER.
And make these following individual executives of those satanic mills pay out of their own pocket, not just from the company accounts:
https://decolonialatlas.wordpress.com/2019/04/27/names-and-locations-of-the-top-100-people-killing-the-planet/
because they have KNOWINGLY been committing ecocide/homicide.
They all KNEW they were creating HELL on Earth, but lied about it for DECADES. See this:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/
So what now? How can we go after those companies and executives to fix the planet?
Simple. By VOTING for GREEN politicians and parties – because they are NOT in the pockets of Fossil Fuel Companies.
Do that and you will be striking a blow against the Empire.
The ruling and revolving door of the duopoly of political parties in Canada, Australia, UK, USA etc. all take 'donations' from those killer organizations that have brought our species to the brink of extinction.
It is MADNESS to keep voting for one of the two majors - here in Australia those who are awake call them the 'Shit' or 'Shit-Lite' parties.
Someone much smarter than me said that if you keep doing the same thing over and over and keep hoping to get different results, you are truly mad.
So don't be mad. Don't get mad. Get even.
Via a THIRD way.
Green politicians and Green political parties want to do away with 'donations' to political parties to remove the corruption that goes with it.
The Greens want to also STOP PAYING those EcoCriminal organizations that are KILLING us all - yes, that's right, for the privilege this week of choking on wildfire smoke in Canada, USA, Spain, etc. or the fun times to be had that go with flooding in Bangladesh, Japan, Italy etc. this week, our so called Shit/Shit-Lite 'leaders' for the past 120 years or so have been authorizing/paying hundreds of billions annually to these criminals, using OUR TAX MONEY!
How much? How does over a TRILLION dollars in subsidies (i.e. free handouts to BigFosilFuel) sound - just in the year 2022!!!
WTAF???
See this for details: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/02/fossil-fuel-consumption-subsidies-energy-2022/
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THAT?
Politicians of the Shit/Shit-Lite variety, despite their corrupt ways in gerrymandering districts, disenfranchising voters, and deceiving with propaganda, are still only able to get into positions of power if ignorant/uninformed people VOTE for them.
So if you agree that the system is broken, its you the voters of the two majors who are the CAUSE.
And if you’re not outraged by the poisoning of our biosphere, and the carnage it is unleashing upon us in return, you’re not only not paying attention, but you are also part of the problem.
So wise up dear reader.
Vote GREENER, not harder - if you want to get out of this alive.
SECOND PRIORTY
Electrify EVERYTHING.
See this for details: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/04/electrify-everything-scope-data/?fbclid=IwAR1Tzsf3OPkebW_h-ZfJy4mWIc7Cft1I6okjMe9r3BOfKftyAii7gJfN26E
But how do we get into the position where we can electrify everything?
See voting above.
And finally, don’t waste your precious time trying to convince ClimateCrisis deniers that we’re in a fight for our lives – they’re too far gone down the Rabbit Hole.
Thanks to the ongoing efforts of evil ‘humans’ such as Rupert Murdoch and the KOCH Brothers et al, the deniers are part of the problem and are not capable of absorbing anything other than propaganda fed to them from the ruling 1%.
Instead, use your valuable time to join or help mobilize like-minded awake allies to PROTEST and HIT THE STREETS!
Yes, walk the talk.
Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil are two of the most effective organizations in this area who are achieving real results.
So join the RESISTANCE!
And why do that? Because it WORKS. See this: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
As Margaret Mead, the notable Anthropologist, said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”