Climate Change

Plausible Explanation – Day 958

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Photo: L. Weikel

Plausible Explanation

Ever have one of those days when you wake up with a headache? That’s never a good sign – particularly if there’s no ‘good’ reason to do so. Not that imbibing the night before is a good reason. But it’s at least a plausible explanation, albeit one that calls into question your choices.

The only explanation I can come up with for my headache, which sadly has persisted all day and is actually getting worse again now, is the sudden onslaught of excessive heat and humidity.

Really, though? Yeah, it’s unpleasant here in eastern PA at the moment. But it’s nothing like the hell Portland, Oregon is living through. Portland broke its heat record today by reaching 108 degrees. That’s gross no matter where you live. But in the Pacific Northwest. What!?

And tomorrow they’re looking at a predicted high of 115 degrees. We’re not talking Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, folks. This is not good.

Walked Anyway

In spite of my headache I still managed to get a walk in today. I waited longer than usual to set out; so long, in fact, that Spartacus was almost begging me to go himself.

Naturally, as soon as we set out a squall appeared on the horizon. It bore down on us remarkably quickly and I made the executive decision to stay the course.

It poured for approximately a minute. Just enough to cool us both down. We didn’t even get drenched, as we were sheltered enough by some trees to only get hit by about half the drops raining down upon us.

At least we were rewarded with a rainbow. It’s the first one I’ve seen in a couple months.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow’s supposed to be hotter here, too. Not as hot as Portland, but hot for June 27th.

If we’re paying attention, it sure seems the dominoes are starting to fall. You know, the climate change dominoes that most people in power have been paid by special interests for decades to ignore.

Pretty soon it will be too late. I hope it isn’t already.

(T-153)

May Day – Day 901

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ET or Kermit the Frog? – Photo: L. Weikel

May Day

Tomorrow (aka ‘today’ by the time you read this) is the first day of May, i.e., May Day. April was unceremoniously escorted off the premises by the aforementioned Wild Winds I warned of last night.

I’ll admit it; the intensity of the wind and the sound of it roaring through the trees exhilarated me. Blasting away the heat of the past two days, which was oppressive in its sudden onset, it felt like the last vestiges of 2020 were finally being whisked away.

The first order of business this morning was bringing in our wind chimes. We’d slept with our bedroom windows open last night and it was hard to hear myself think when I awoke. The chimes’ normally mellifluous tones quickly devolved into a clattering tangle of tubes.

Perelandra

I mention that tomorrow (today) is May Day because, as always, the first of the month is the day I join thousands of people across the world in engaging in an extremely simple, five minute (if that) act called the Essence of Perelandra  (EoP) Biodiversity Process. I’ve written about this many times over the past 900 posts and encourage everyone to participate for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, I respect the work of Machaelle Small Wright and Perelandra, the center she established decades ago in Virginia. It is not unlike the work engaged in at Findhorn, in Scotland, in the manner in which the consciousness of Nature is respected and engaged with directly.

Second of all, this process couldn’t be more simple, yet it is uniting people across the world in setting an intention of bringing balance and healing to our biosphere. This process enables each and every one of us to take one small step toward healing ourselves and bringing strength and support to our personal environment in order to counter climate change stresses.

Beyond our compulsive commitment to carrying a bag everywhere we walk in order to pick up trash, engaging in the EoP Biodiversity Process on the first of every month feels like an opportunity to make a difference that’s just too simple to pass up.

Clouds

Because the atmosphere was so volatile today, the wind was driving a tumult of clouds into a variety of intriguing shapes and aspects to each other. As Spartacus and I walked, we didn’t even need to worry when fat drops of water started splatting down upon us. Almost as quickly as the billowing slate gray cloud started spilling over onto us, it stopped.

At one point, though, I wasn’t sure if I was looking at Kermit the Frog or ET. I still can’t make up my mind.

But the presence of The Mystery was both palpable and undeniably visible in a couple of the photos I took. My wish is that we awaken this first day of May eager to embrace the freshly scrubbed face of Mother Earth. The Winds of Change have arrived.

Sunset Clouds – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-210)

Window of Orange – Day 751

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Weighted Blanket – Photo: L. Weikel

Window of Orange

Karl and I took a walk today in what I would consider late afternoon. It was early for us, but we sensed the shift in temperature from yesterday and didn’t want to get even colder walking in the dark. From the look of the clouds, the potential for precipitation was significant – at least a possible snow squall – although my Weather Channel app said otherwise. (We both felt some flakes sweep our cheeks, but they never attained the momentum of even a decent flurry.) Covering the sky with billowing shades of dark slate gray tinged with the slightest edges of purplish black and ashy white, the cloudbank felt like a weighted blanket. But there – far across the miles of fields and farms and forests – a window of orange light appeared.

It almost looked contrived, as if we were in some sort of huge space ship and a rectangular door on the far horizon whisked aside, opening with a swish just like in Star Trek.

While I took a photo of the rectangular doorway of light that appeared, I was definitely more interested in trying to capture the magnificence and personality of the dark, swirling threat of pent up weather-rage manifesting before us. The darkness felt familiar. The light of the sunset peeking through that doorway felt like a false promise. It’s hard to explain.

“Window” closer up – Photo: L. Weikel

Evolution of the Sunset

We watched the cloud cover and setting sun dance with each other and sort themselves out as we walked. By the time we got home, a significant portion of cloud cover had either dissipated or moved on.

The moon rose, powerful and so clear, like the beam of a klieg light. Noticing this full-on brilliance gave me pause when I again contemplated the moon that had awakened us at the very moment of its fullest expression. Perhaps her brilliance was so great that she’d appeared brighter than expected even though she was being eclipsed by the Earth and traveling through her shadow.

Where to place my attention? – Photo: L. Weikel

Starry Night

I came inside from doing my Perelandra Biodiversity Project process right before starting this post. It’s the 1st day of December and, as I’ve written about many other times, the first of every month is the day people from all over the world take about five minutes out of their lives to consciously join in the effort to shift the energy of the land or property over which they have control (own, rent, have authority over) in order to combat the effects of climate change.

It’s a simple process, a means of having a brief chit-chat with the Spirits of the land on which you live during which you show them you are aware of climate change and how the stress of it may be resulting in loss or extinction of biodiversity. It’s a tiny opportunity to communicate appreciation of Nature and express a willingness to co-create a healed environment.

I was moved almost to tears as I engaged in this conversation. (I tend to talk a bit more after reciting the ten or so words the actual process calls for. I enjoy expressing gratitude and asking if there’s anything else I can do to show it.) The stars were blinking in the cold clear air and it seemed almost too great a leap from the weighted blanket of dark and ominous clouds that had hung over our heads only hours earlier.

I’m not even sure what it is I was marveling at as I stood on the edge of the porch and chatted with the Spirits of our land. Perhaps it was the astonishing rapidity with which everything can change.

That’s where the door cracks open to invite miracles into our lives. Realizing that everything can change – <<snap>> – just that fast.

Photo: L. Weikel

(T-360)

August Arrives – Day 628

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Photo: L. Weikel

August Arrives

Yes, by the time this post is read by any of you, August 2020 will be here. We will be seven full months into the cataclysmic year of 2020 and embarking upon month number eight.

Who amongst us isn’t freaking excited by the prospects? Huh? Come on. I know I can’t be the only one on the edge of my seat with anticipation over what revelations and curveballs await us this month?

Glad to See July End

Don’t get me wrong. I’m the last person to challenge worse. But I have to tell you: this last day of July has been a rough one. I’ll almost certainly write about what made today particularly discomfiting for me, but I have to sleep on it and assess the damage tomorrow.

But it’s not looking good.

Let’s just say the wild, torrential rain that accompanied some excellent thunder and lightning last night took an unexpected toll.

Biodiversity Project

I might as well use this opportunity to remind everyone that tomorrow is, indeed, the first of August. That means it’s time once again to lend your energy and intention to the Perelandra Biodiversity Project, which I’ve been encouraging participation in for well over a year now. (And just so it’s clear: I have no financial interest in Perelandra. I do not get a single penny for my enthusiasm. I simply love the concept and the sincere dedication of the organization and its founder to promoting our conscious partnership with Nature.)

This process, using Essence of Perelandra, is incredibly simple and quick. The whole procedure from start to finish takes no more than five minutes. And the loveliest part about it, in my opinion, besides the potential for fulfilling the overarching intention of restoring balance and harmony between all living things on your land or in your space, is the simple act of bringing awareness to the land on which you live.

Whenever I open Sacred Space, I specifically include and ‘call in’ the Spirits of the Place where I am doing the ceremony or engaging in sacred work. As a species, we’ve grown more and more oblivious to the sentience of anything other than other humans. Some people acknowledge the sentience of animals (especially their pets), but fewer and fewer still consider wild animals, insects, or plants as having a form of consciousness. It’s extremely rare for anyone outside of our brothers and sisters who retain their indigenous roots and connections to accord the land – and Mother Earth herself – sentience.

So beyond the explicit intention of restoring and healing the balance of diversity ‘in our own back yards’ that the Biodiversity Project fosters, I personally love the awareness it brings to each of us who engage in it. In the midst of these chaotic, uncertain, and oftentimes frightening times, engaging in this process asks us to simply STOP for five minutes and BE with where we are. It asks us to acknowledge our interconnectedness with All That Is. And it’s so incredibly simple and easy.

Simple – Like Wearing a Mask

The ease with which we might make an enormous difference in the energetic balance of our environment (including the environment within our own selves) by doing this simple process is akin to the huge difference the simple act of wearing a mask can make in protecting all of us and contributing to stopping the spread of the Coronavirus.

I guess I’m left wondering why we resist engaging in little steps that very possibly could make a humongous difference in the trajectory of our existence here on Earth. Are we afraid they won’t work and we’ll look foolish? If they don’t work, and we all die or the Earth becomes so out of balance that climate change inundates us (and kills us all in other ways besides the current pandeminc) to whom will we look foolish?

Community

Another significant benefit to engaging in the Biodiversity Project is knowing that I’m joining people all over the world in a collective and sincere effort to make things just a little bit better. I love envisioning the web of interconnected love and caring that is established when I contemplate our united efforts.

As August arrives, if you have a bottle of Essence of Perelandra, join me. Read the instructions here and take a moment – at any time during the 1st day of the month – to help reclaim balance and healing for us all. We’re all connected. What benefits one benefits all.

If you don’t have a bottle of Essence of Perelandra – order one for September 1st. Goodness knows, I’m sure we’ll need more and more intentions set for balance and healing by then.

And although I’m sure I don’t need to say it, I will say it anyway: Wear a mask. For you. For me. For us.

(T-483)

Yikes Squared – Day 450

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Photo: www.brittanica.com

Yikes “Squared”

Fun Fact? Today was Donald Trump’s 1111thday in office.

My post yesterday featured a photo of daffodil greens poking their heads up out of the ground a good three inches or so. The fact that those flowers are being coaxed to emerge from their cozy winter beds when it is only early February was troubling to me. It’s not their time yet.

Of course, I ended up writing about the Iowa Caucus, which was also in the process of earning its own well-deserved “Yikes.” In fact, as of just past midnight tonight, well over 24 hours after the end of the Iowa Caucus, we’re still operating with only about 62% of the precincts reporting. None of the candidates can safely claim victory or pretty much make any announcements upon which they might want to capitalize.

How incredibly frustrating must that be for those candidates?! They’ve been spending millions of dollars, focusing intense attention to this state, and practically living there, in some cases, for nearly a year – only to have the results of the single most important night, the culmination of all that hard work directed at this first opportunity for the people to speak bungled?!

Good grief.

Even Worse

But I have to tell you: I took a walk late this afternoon and had to stop. I cocked my head to get a better sense of where the sound was coming from and what I was actually hearing.

A chill ran through me. Yes. Those voices. I recognized them. It was peepers. It’s February 4th, and I could hear peepers calling out and singing their springtime song as they emerged from the mud in the wooded wetlands near my home.

“But it’s February!” I yelled out loud. “Early February, at that!” Spartacus glanced back at me, startled by the sudden eruption of my voice and worried I’d caught him nibbling on something he shouldn’t.

Yikes squared

And then there was the SOTU, the President’s State of the Union address, to listen to this evening. Many entreated me not to listen. And I’ll admit, I was tempted to just let it go. I probably should have, in fact. But I didn’t.

I can tell you that I’m not happy I did it (other than feeling a smidgen of satisfaction in having shown some archaic sense of respect for the office). There were so many lies, so many distortions of truth, and so many blatant moments of pandering and use of rhetoric specifically geared toward manipulating emotion (over issues he’s actually taken stances diametrically in opposition to) that it made me feel lost and all alone.

Back to Premature Peepers

Nope; while I want to express my dismay over their very early emergence, they’re just not giving me enough of a distraction, in spite of my worry over their welfare.

Tomorrow is the actual vote on removing DT from office. From everything that’s gone before, including his behavior following his other two SOTU addresses, he’s going to start tweeting – and tweeting hard. As soon as the Republicans (who literally chanted “Four more years!” at the SOTU, as if they were at a campaign rally) vote to acquit instead of convict and remove him from office, he is going to be off to the races.

Just as Rep. Adam Schiff argued, his power is going to proceed unchecked. He will think and feel and know (based on the Republican Senators’ error and party fealty) he has the powers of a despot. And given his penchant for revenge? Well, we’re already hearing some reports of what he intends to do to his enemies. And we should all be afraid.

Including the peepers who are making their premature entrance into the world.

Photo: mortonarb.com

(T-661)

Climate Change Advocacy & Awareness – Day 348

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Photo: L. Weikel

Climate Change Advocacy & Awareness

Sorry to say it, but I dropped the ball here: I should’ve announced this event at least a week ago, but didn’t.

On the off chance you may be a last minute pick-up-and-go type of person and in the mood for a drive to the Poconos tomorrow, there’s a program being offered that could help you get your climate change advocacy groove on. (Phew – that was a long sentence.)

Three advocacy and educational organizations, Brodhead Watershed Association, PennFuture, and Brodhead Trout Unlimited will be co-hosting “A Day for Environmental Advocacy and Awareness” tomorrow. From 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., three different workshops will be offered at the Brodhead Creek Heritage Center, 1539 Cherry Lane Road, East Stroudsburg.

Advocacy 101

In the first session, from 10:00 to noon, a workshop will be offered on Meeting With Your Legislator. All the little things that cross your mind when you contemplate actually making your position on climate change known to your local, state, or federal representatives will be covered.

It’s one thing to rail against what you know to be true about climate change, feel the pain of reading about its effects on birds and animals (including humans), or experience the anxiety and fear engendered by extremes in weather, an increase in wildfires, and rising sea levels. But it’s a whole other thing to effectively, coherently, and cogently bring those concerns to the attention of those who actually make policy.

A second session, aimed at honing your ability to write an effective ‘letter to the editor’ will take place from 1:30 to 2:30.

During a lunch break between those two sessions, there will be an opportunity to get a close up look at a variety of ‘clean cars’ – from hybrids to electric.

Birds and Climate

The day concludes with a third session, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.: a “Birds and Climate” Walk and Talk. This program, which I’m particularly looking forward to attending given my recent angst over the disappearance of the birds from my feeders as noted here, here, and here, will be led by Darryl and Jackie Speicher of the Pocono Avian Research Center. The Speichers will be teaching about how climate change is impacting bird populations, their migration, and of course, their habitats.

Follow the Links

If you’re interested in learning more and are up for a road trip to the Poconos, I urge you to follow the links provided and register for the sessions you wish to attend. It may be late notice to them, but it will give them a heads up that you’re coming.

Give Yourself Plenty of Time

I’ve heard from a local up there that this weekend will probably be prime for ‘leaf peeping,’ thus the roads will be rife with tourists. (Technically, I guess we might qualify?!) All the more reason to attend this event! We all need to do what we can to preserve and protect our amazing earthly environment for generations to come.

Again, my apologies for not sharing this information with you sooner. But if it works out that you can attend, I hope the organizations involved will welcome some last minute attendees.

I don’t know if anyone will answer on such late notice, but there is a phone number for the Brodhead Watershed Association: 570-839-1120 and an email address: info@brodheadwatershed.org.

Maybe I’ll see you there!

(T-763)

Climate Strike March – Doylestown – Day 315

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A Really Good Question – Photo: L. Weikel

Climate Strike March – Doylestown

In anticipation of tomorrow’s UN Climate Action Summit, youth from all corners of Bucks County (as well as New Jersey and elsewhere) converged on Doylestown today and took to the streets to let the ‘adults in charge’ know that they’re not going to wait around any longer.

The event was well planned and ably-implemented by BScape (Bucks Students for Climate Action and Protection of the Environment ), and the guest speakers were inspiring and well-informed.

There were also lots of older allies marching alongside and in solidarity with these younger activists. It was a sight to behold.

The bottom line here is that we must vote people out who do not believe that we are facing a climate crisis.

Photos and Inspiration

I’m including a couple of photos that capture the flavor of the march.

Getting Started – Photo: L. Weikel

BScape leading the way – Photo: L. Weikel

Photo: L. Weikel

Local Political Support

It was great to see a number of local politicians taking the time to show up and speak to the crowed of assembled marchers. State Representative Wendy Ullman gave some “highlights” of shocking statistics she’d received at a meeting she attended I believe last week (or maybe even yesterday). I would link to the report she synopsized, but cannot yet find it on her website. The truth of what’s going on in our environment is shocking – and needs all of our attention and ACTION. (And the best action we can take, of course, is to VOTE.)

State Rep. Wendy Ullman – Photo: L. Weikel

Fall Equinox

Finally, fall officially arrives at 3:50 a.m. EDT on Monday, September 23rd. A new season arrives – and it feels like it’s time to sweep the old stuff away. It’s time to clean house.

I suspect the coming week is going to be a big one for all of us. Let’s do our best to keep our eyes and ears open to what’s truly important. We must remain vigilant and refuse to succumb to the distractions that will undoubtedly be bombarding us from all directions.

(T-796)

Is There Oxygen In Here? – Day 313

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Pastel Sunset 20 Sept 19 – Photo: L. Weikel

Is There Oxygen In Here?

Asking for the room. I’m also asking for the planet.

Nothing, it seems, can happen in the world anymore without yet another scandal involving DT sucking all the oxygen out of the room.

Yet millions of people took a stand for Mother Earth today, walking out of offices and schools, gathering together in streets and parks and public squares, to demand that we all stop what we’re doing and realize our planet is on fire, and soon none of us may be able to breathe anymore.

We are living the crisis.

If You Didn’t Strike Today

If you weren’t able to participate in the Global Climate Strike today, there are still many opportunities to demand that our governments (and fellow citizens) begin taking seriously the threat to our planet’s existence.

For instance, if you live anywhere within striking distance of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, youth and other climate activists intend to march in the county seat of Doylestown from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. The march will organize in the parking lot of Central Bucks West High School and culminate at the Bucks County Courthouse.

If You’re Just Getting Up to Speed

There are so many life and conscience-threatening issues and sources of disruption in our lives every single day, it seems, that it’s hard to keep up with them all.

All of these strikes are taking place in lead-up to United Nations Climate Action Summit on Monday, September 23rd in New York City. Here is a link to the main strike site that explains the point behind these so-called Climate Strikes.

The Power of One

What’s pretty astounding is that this world-wide movement literally began with one then-15 year old Swedish girl sitting outside Parliament in Stockholm, protesting that no one in the world seemed to be paying attention to the crisis facing all of us.

So this particular movement to gain the attention of the world to the existential threat of our time began looking this:

And has resulted in this in the span of one year :

Never Underestimate the Power of YOU

In the meantime, tonight’s sky was a study in pastels. I feel so deeply grateful for our planet, for the beauty and abundance she provides us every single day, and for the fury she displays and the destructive force she wields when she gets out of balance.

Just like any good mother, she continues to teach us, through her own example, no matter how old we get. Let us express our fury in healthy, peaceful, and effective ways, so we can minimize the destruction that’s already taking place on our watch, and that awaits us all if we don’t wake up – now.

(T-798)

Stand For Our Mother – Day 312

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Stand For Our Mother

Tonight’s post will be short and sweet.

Amidst all the insanity, all of the human angst and suffering, the cruelty we inflict upon each other, and the struggles each of us engage in on a daily basis, sometimes just to keep our shit together enough to make it through one more day, there is one unequivocal, undeniable constant.

No matter who we are, no matter where we live, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in on any given day, in any given country, there remains one aspect of this life that we all share: Mother Earth.

Being a Mother

The parallels are there. They’re undeniable. We call this planet upon which we live our lives Mother  Earth for a reason. Just as there’s a reason that we never call this planet Father  Earth.

This observation is not in any way a knock on fathers. Not at all. It is, rather, an acknowledgment of the obvious.

Mother Earth feeds  every thing and every being who lives upon her from her body . In one form or another, we all continue to seek and receive nourishment from the body of our mother, the planet Earth, every single day.

In order to keep us safe, she grows on her ‘skin,’ so to speak, materials that we need and use to build shelters that protect us from the elements.

In order to keep us healthy, she provides the perfect environment for plants to thrive and grow. These plants not only feed us, but also make medicines and other remedies that serve us, heal us, and help us maintain our balance, inside and out.

In order to keep us happy and entertained, warm in the winter and cold in the summer, in order to keep us with gold and silver on our fingers, clothes on our backs, and modes of transportation that take us across town or to the other side of “her,” our planet gives to us of herself.

Everything we use to sustain life here on this planet is created out of or provided directly by Mother Earth.

Taking Responsibility

For the longest time, she has indulged us – as a mother who cherishes her child might, and often does – even though she knows, deep down, that every child eventually needs to grow up and face the consequences of its choices.

Our actions, from what we do when we wake up each day, the food we eat, the cars we drive, the lights we use, to the faucet we turn off, have consequences. And if we don’t start paying attention and noticing the consequences of our actions, it’s akin to jamming a fork into our mother’s eye.

How can we expect her to keep taking care of us if all we do is take, take, take? She needs to recuperate. She needs time to replenish herself and her stores so she can share her bounty with us for years and hopefully millennia to come.

Climate Strike

My whole point is that we need to start standing up for our mother. We need to treat her with the respect and love and appreciation that she deserves. And in order to motivate others to join us in a mutual effort to work together to bring healing to her and, indeed, all of us, we need to take a stand.

If you’ve only been lending half an ear to the latest efforts to bring awareness to climate change, then you may not be fully aware that the youth of the world are asking that we all pay attention and stand up for Mother Earth tomorrow.

We’re being asked to walk out – go on strike – stop working for a time (whether it’s at school or at work or anywhere in between) in order to bring the world to a halt!

Join Me – Join Us – Join Our Youth

Here are a few links to some articles and resources that can explain who, what, when, where, and why.

But the important thing is taking a STAND. Show up. Take responsibility. Don’t be afraid to ‘come out’ as a science believer and a Mother Earth LOVER.

She’s loved us all this time. Let’s love her back – now – when she needs her children to grow the hell up already and stop poisoning her just because we can.

(T-799)

Things Are Weird Out There – Day 302

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Owl Moth

Things Are Weird Out There

I don’t know about you, but I’m finding my sense of what’s going on in the world, both on a macro-level and on a very personal, day-to-day level, to be chaotic and bordering on overwhelming.

I’m amazed, I guess, at the intensity with which we are being asked to live our lives nowadays.

I look back on my journals from 15 or 20 years ago (and even further back) and I honestly feel as though we lived in another age. And by that I mean when I read my entries and contemplate how we lived our daily lives, it feels like life back in the ‘80s and ‘90s is as foreign to us now as “Little House on the Prairie” days looked to us then.

When You Really Think About It…

We are witnessing a time in the world’s evolution that could, conceivably, make or break the entire planet. What an outrageous and outlandish concept. We’re literally and very probably fiddling around taking the smallest of steps to change our energy usage (for instance), when in a year or two, if we do not drastically change our ways in one fell swoop, we almost certainly will be facing cataclysmic, made-for-tv-movie events in our lives on a regular, probably monthly, basis.

I cannot for the life of me understand why addressing the very real, very tangible effects of climate change hinges on whether or not people ‘believe’ climate change is ‘man-made’ or not.

Regardless of ‘whose fault it is,’ it behooves all of us to LOOK. AT. IT. Doesn’t it?

Who cares whether there have been other times in the history of our planet when the atmosphere naturally warmed and caused massive sheets of ice to melt? When those things happened, it changed the course of evolution, didn’t it? And if the plants and animals living at that time could see that, if circumstances continued to unfold the way they were those plants and animals would become extinct, and if they had had the technology and awareness to stop those changes from taking place – wouldn’t they have done so?

Does it really matter whose ‘fault’ it is?

What Is Wrong With Us?

The level of immaturity and utter nonsensical thinking, when it comes to refusing to take practical steps to save our planet (and thus ourselves), defies explanation.

Every day we see the current Administration deliberately rolling back commonsense efforts to make life better here on Earth. For instance, this Administration just rolled back the banning of the sale of energy inefficient light bulbs that was to take effect at the beginning of 2020. And they also are challenging California’s efforts to implement stricter emissions standards than those rolled back by the current Administration. This flies in the face of the usual stance of the Republican party that “states rights” be given precedence over federal regulations.

Sort of Like Dumping Garbage

I guess these attitudes are akin to the people who unconsciously (or worse, deliberately and consciously) dump garbage out their car windows – be it empty cigarette packs, cigarettes themselves, or used disposable diapers.

Every day I’m speaking with friends or clients or even just people standing in line with me at the grocery story who have a strange new look in their eyes. That look is one that says, to me, “I’m starting to freak the hell out. Life as we know it has become insane.”

What to Do?

When confronted with strangers in the grocery line, I do my best to catch their eye and smile. Laugh.

We pick up the cigarette butts and empty packs of Marlboros and dirty diapers dumped along the roadside. (Luckily, dirty diapers are a rarity, but still…).

We use the energy efficient bulbs regardless of whether the old ones are still available for purchase.

I do my best to hold a vision of a United States that leads the way in finding innovative solutions to our crises.

I do my best not to lose hope.

(T-809)