“For too long, a lot of the climate change and global warming arguments have been looking at melting ice and polar bears and not at the human suffering side of it. They are still pushing out the polar bear as the icon for climate change. The icon should be a kid who is suffering from the negative impacts of climate change and increased air pollution, or a family where rising water is endangering their lives.”
~ Robert D. Bullard, a professor at Texas Southern University who some call the “father of environmental justice.”We’re feeling the heat here in Los Angeles. I now have to avoid going out until after five in the evenings. For my son, an independent contractor who often works outdoors, it’s hell.
GALVESTON, Tex. — Adolfo Guerra, a landscaper in this port city on the Gulf of Mexico, remembers panicking as his co-worker vomited and convulsed after hours of mowing lawns in stifling heat. Other workers rushed to cover him with ice, and the man recovered.
But, for Mr. Guerra, 24, who spends nine hours a day, six days a week doing yard work the episode was a reminder of the dangers that exist for outdoor workers as the planet warms.
Continue reading: In Sweltering South, Climate Change Is Now a Workplace Hazard
Three Worlds One Vision 
#1, it’s bad for this area now, but other parts of the world ex., sub Saharan Africa, have been experiencing this for long, deadly decades and hardly a word of it in the Western media and the West didn’t care. Only now that the chickens are coming home to roost, is there the beginning of an outcry but it’s still business as usual isn’t it? The greatest fear is that this thing is threatening an exclusive and utterly entitled way of life. Oh sure we’ll switch if you give us something bigger, better, faster, cheaper, louder, with less work and more fun, or we can maximize profits from. Anythings less, you’re a conspiracy theorist, a Russian commie spy and un-American.
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Our “entitled way of life” is coming to an end. No amount of money or stuff or power will save us from the disruption we’ve triggered to the natural order of life on Planet Earth.
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This is the part that baffles me. I don’t need pictures of glaciers breaking off and melting to know this is real. Today, I took a walk and felt as if I couldn’t breathe. I do wish that people would use their common sense, if for nothing else than to question the physical world in which we live.
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The whole climate change issue is interesting, as viewed from the point of view of the people who inhabit this world… When I read about it, I’m reminded of the Isaac Asimov anecdote about statistics: 3 statisticians decided to leave their desks and go duck hunting. The first statistician to shoot at a duck fired a meter above it; the second fired a meter below it and the third exclaimed, We got it!
So we are experiencing “climate change” and of that there can be no doubt. But what is really causing it, and where will it take the planet? Is it man-made, nature induced, or a combination of both? On something this big we do need agreement. We can’t just pick our favourite statistic and push the entire world in that direction: could be pointless, could be fatal.
I have terrible migraine headaches, complains the patient to her surgeon. Oh, I see, says he, I know the cause: you need your leg amputated. What? she exclaims, my leg amputated? What’s my leg got to do with it? Well says he, I’m a surgeon, I have to cut something out to solve your problem…
My approach, and it’s really too simple to ever have a hope of working, is for people to stop their consumerism and their entitled “right” to resource/space. Stop buying just for the thrill of it; stop hoarding useless junk; stop whining, bitching and complaining, and… look around. Who needs help? Help them, anyway you can. It’s called compassionate selflessness. After that we can simply move on to the higher level of non-ownership, either of stuff… or people.
All that’s required is for everybody to do this, individually, automatically, knowing it’s the right way to proceed. Yes… everybody, no exceptions,no special groups or charitable organizations… just self-empowerment… how about that, huh? No more media (religious, political or financial) razz-a-ma-tazz to tell you how to spend your money, or live your life.
Which brings me to your concept of common sense. Yup… simple common sense, who’d a thunked it?
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Exactly.
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It baffles me, too, Kathy. We’re either in denial, asleep or don’t care.
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One of the less frequently mentioned climate change issues is the heightened risk of war because of the living circumstances that are compromised by an altering environment. Areas that become uninhabitable can lead to large populations migrating and/or wars fought over habitable territory and water supplies. Those interested in national security and stable borders, whether one agrees with them or not, are undermining their own agenda by dismissing climate change concerns.
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Exactly, geopolitical instability will only worsen going forward.
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You’ve raised an important issue, Dr. Stein. The Pentagon is well aware of the threat of climate change to our national security. Here’s an excerpt from a recent article posted on Military.com:
In 2014, the Pentagon released a Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap that declared “climate change will affect the Department of Defense’s ability to defend the nation and poses immediate risks to U.S. national security.” Another Pentagon report in 2015 called climate change a “threat multiplier.”
Read more at http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/06/02/trump-may-doubt-climate-change-pentagon-sees-it-looming-threat.html
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Rosaliene,
I do think the industrial age has peaked, and President Trump is behind the times. As you know I’m more concerned about environmental toxins than climate change, per se. Gargantuan industries that produce a lot of waste at home while exporting their products to world markets are only “fueling” all problems. All those ships use lots of fuel. A back-handed advantage of a poorer population is they can’t afford all that cheap plastic junk made by slave labor in China. American and other countries’ “consumerism” is on the decline.
By the way, I live in the Deep South and don’t use air conditioning. I’ve been known to turn the hose over my head outdoors in the summer.
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Our president and the Masters of our World who support him are struggling desperately to keep their Titanic afloat.
Growing inequality is impoverishing our nation. Impoverished people consume little and recycle their waste. But the Masters of our World find ways to profit from the poor masses: cheap labor, sex slaves, human trafficking, and much more.
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And having their land stolen or polluted out from under them.
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May it become cooler soon
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Any cooling will be temporary, Derrick. Rising temperatures are here to stay unless we stop pumping more carbon and methane into our atmosphere.
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Today I read that commercial flight turbulence caused by global warming will be an epidemic in the future.
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I hadn’t read that bit of news. Also, if we want to continue air travel, we’ll have to re-design our planes to take off and fly in extreme temperatures of over 118 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Rosaliene,
I’ve been contemplating the convention of siestas during the heat of the day. Also, in Southern France and Spain, they take three hours off at lunch and work later in the afternoons to make up the time. I wonder if such an idea would fly in the hottest parts of the US, especially for those who work outdoors. Certainly there are creative ways to ameliorate this problem, if not to solve it completely.
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Katherine, in Fortaleza/Brazil, we had a two-hour lunch break. Lots of time for a long nap 🙂 I believe that such a change would take time in the US. Lots of people would have to start collapsing in the heat on a regular basis for business owners and managers to take action.
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I agree people are slow to change, but drastic measures needn’t be necessary. Just talking it up might inspire some businesses or other, like self-employed people to try it, especially in the hottest months.
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That could work. A drop in commercial activity during the hottest times of the day could also spur change.
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Rosaliene,
Now you’re talking. I’ll bet a lot of people would like the idea–a chance to take a break and come back to work cooler and refreshed. Proponents could visit the suffering during the heat of the day and “talk stop” in a compassionate way. Potentially a real community builder.
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We shall see.
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This is the end of western civilisation. It’s desperate, and it won’t end well. I take the view that, as Professor Lovelock suggest, that we must live the best lives we can and take a sustainable retreat. (Although i don’t know enough about Lovelock to really say whether he is correct in the assumptions he made.)
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I agree, Mary, it is the end of western civilization. But the Masters of our world will fight to the end – with nuclear weapons, if necessary – to maintain their power.
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So true, we need to remember that climate change effects us as a species as well. As much as we care about the polar bears it will be the impacts closer to home that really tell it as it is.
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Perhaps, the focus on the polar bears in the mainstream media is a deliberate attempt to lull us into a false sense of complacency.
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So true, especially since the Coca-Cola ads…
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Yes probably. The media is very selective like that.
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Would it be OK if I cross-posted this article to WriterBeat.com? There is no fee; I’m simply trying to add more co5ntent diversity for our community and I enjoyed reading your work. I’ll be sure to give you complete credit as the author. If “OK” please let me know via email.
Autumn
AutumnCote@WriterBeat.com
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We work in a hot warehouse, the upper floors can go to 105 degrees. Wearing a cool towel or drinking lots of water can help. . . It helped me to lose weight and increase liquids. Hopefully, those working out in the sun wear wide brimmed woven hats and/ or bandanas to keep sweat from smdripping into eyes.
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During the hot summer days, I kept cool by drinking ice-cold water. The days are still hot here in Los Angeles. The raging wildfires in Northern California and those much closer to L.A. are more signs of the effects of climate change.
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