When shit hits the fan, you can't count on government to save the day. At best, you hope they don't get in your way -- like the police barricading Front Street.
The placard program was a perfect example. They have supplies to give out, so they create a program to get a placard to get the supplies. But they can't manage the program -- so they just cancel it.
I am, shall we say, an early adopter or “accepter” of climate change. I have believed and accepted the basic conclusions concerning our role in the problem, and the need to embrace getting away from fossil fuels.
Beyond that, I was not pleased with seeing others jump through hoops to claim “climate disaster” for what happened in Maui. There are too many variables for any single event to make that claim. Now, it seems we hear this for every wildfire, hurricane, or heat dome.
I stopped believing when I learned the history of Greenland.
What does trouble me very greatly is pollution by plastics and toxic chemicals.
To be sure, you can't have even rudimentary civilization without changing the ecosystem. That's just life on earth. But when I see purported progressives with painted nails and neon hair and tattoos etc. etc. etc. I don't have much faith in their principles.
And I'll say this again, in as many places as I can--the most cheering thing I ever saw was the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone becoming the biggest wildlife refuge in Europe. I don't recommend irradiation of the environment, to be sure. But life can't be stopped.
I'm going to agree with you there. Plastics, for sure, are going to cause problems, and I hope we find economically feasible solutions. Toxic chemicals is another, and I believe there are far more health issues surrounding this than we are even aware of. Yet. On that front, we do need to decrease the amount of absolute shit we are putting into the air and water, primarily. To me, that is just common sense. I look at it like by addressing the obvious pollution, we will in course decrease the amount of greenhouse gases we add to the atmosphere.
Were you writing about the younger crowd, Gen Z, with the nails and neon hair? I don't know if I see it much different than wearing a mohawk back in the day. I think I accept they are going to be more idealistic, as I was at that age, until I realized that certain things just were not going to get done and were unrealistic.
Isn't that awesome about Chernobyl? Not the disaster, but the sanctuary. I saw that too, and it didn't surprise me one bit.
It's not the fashion. It's the chemicals. I doubt the fish are grateful to be drinking even more crap than they must endure in the regular scheme of things.
"But when I see purported progressives with painted nails and neon hair and tattoos etc. etc. etc. I don't have much faith in their principles."
haha this
I try really hard, Ringo, not to judge people based on their outré physical appearances. I was a teenaged punk too.
When one sees a 17-year-old girl or boy with Manic Panic hair, one accepts it as normal. When one sees a 50+-year old politician doing the same thing, one wonders exactly what point they are trying to put across.
For the record, I hate suits and neckties as a mandatory dress code as well. Everybody gotta be signifyin' somethin.'
PS: I had burgundy hair for much of my adulthood. Got it from henna. Was very sad when the ravages of age meant even the most carefully-chosen shade was gonna come out orange on my head. Eventually felt relieved I was spared by the cruelties of time from doing that mudpack thing with a plastic bag tying it all up (I recycled the plastic bag!) ever again in my bathroom.
PS: I think too we should recognize that all religions were birthed in the cauldron of "the sky is falling and we gotta do something to stop it."
And nothing has changed in the human temperament. The natural world remains terrifying in its unpredictable uncontrollable power. Volcanoes still erupt and people keep building towns near those fertile hills, hoping there won't be a fire next time. Wind still crushes our buildings like matchsticks.
We think we are modern instead of understanding we're just *now* and our helplessness against these acts of the cosmos feels intolerable. But it's just life. People often die of very simple things, not just the monstrosities like cancer. As much as some quarters want to blame all SIDS deaths on vaccines, every civilization has its stories about the mother who wakes to find her infant dead and is driven mad with grief and bargains everything she can think of to whatever god she believes in to reverse this horror. But it's a horror terrible in its ordinariness.
When shit hits the fan, you can't count on government to save the day. At best, you hope they don't get in your way -- like the police barricading Front Street.
We just don't seem to learn this.
The placard program was a perfect example. They have supplies to give out, so they create a program to get a placard to get the supplies. But they can't manage the program -- so they just cancel it.
https://twitter.com/matttttt187/status/1691979387141255213
Fuck sake.
Were that reasoning to be applied to the Federal Government (shut down what you can't manage) the entire thing would be gone.
Sounds good to me.
I am, shall we say, an early adopter or “accepter” of climate change. I have believed and accepted the basic conclusions concerning our role in the problem, and the need to embrace getting away from fossil fuels.
Beyond that, I was not pleased with seeing others jump through hoops to claim “climate disaster” for what happened in Maui. There are too many variables for any single event to make that claim. Now, it seems we hear this for every wildfire, hurricane, or heat dome.
I stopped believing when I learned the history of Greenland.
What does trouble me very greatly is pollution by plastics and toxic chemicals.
To be sure, you can't have even rudimentary civilization without changing the ecosystem. That's just life on earth. But when I see purported progressives with painted nails and neon hair and tattoos etc. etc. etc. I don't have much faith in their principles.
And I'll say this again, in as many places as I can--the most cheering thing I ever saw was the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone becoming the biggest wildlife refuge in Europe. I don't recommend irradiation of the environment, to be sure. But life can't be stopped.
I'm going to agree with you there. Plastics, for sure, are going to cause problems, and I hope we find economically feasible solutions. Toxic chemicals is another, and I believe there are far more health issues surrounding this than we are even aware of. Yet. On that front, we do need to decrease the amount of absolute shit we are putting into the air and water, primarily. To me, that is just common sense. I look at it like by addressing the obvious pollution, we will in course decrease the amount of greenhouse gases we add to the atmosphere.
Were you writing about the younger crowd, Gen Z, with the nails and neon hair? I don't know if I see it much different than wearing a mohawk back in the day. I think I accept they are going to be more idealistic, as I was at that age, until I realized that certain things just were not going to get done and were unrealistic.
Isn't that awesome about Chernobyl? Not the disaster, but the sanctuary. I saw that too, and it didn't surprise me one bit.
It's not the fashion. It's the chemicals. I doubt the fish are grateful to be drinking even more crap than they must endure in the regular scheme of things.
The govt sprays us daily.
"But when I see purported progressives with painted nails and neon hair and tattoos etc. etc. etc. I don't have much faith in their principles."
haha this
I try really hard, Ringo, not to judge people based on their outré physical appearances. I was a teenaged punk too.
When one sees a 17-year-old girl or boy with Manic Panic hair, one accepts it as normal. When one sees a 50+-year old politician doing the same thing, one wonders exactly what point they are trying to put across.
For the record, I hate suits and neckties as a mandatory dress code as well. Everybody gotta be signifyin' somethin.'
PS: I had burgundy hair for much of my adulthood. Got it from henna. Was very sad when the ravages of age meant even the most carefully-chosen shade was gonna come out orange on my head. Eventually felt relieved I was spared by the cruelties of time from doing that mudpack thing with a plastic bag tying it all up (I recycled the plastic bag!) ever again in my bathroom.
It's not that. It's the chemicals used to produce the effect.
PS: I think too we should recognize that all religions were birthed in the cauldron of "the sky is falling and we gotta do something to stop it."
And nothing has changed in the human temperament. The natural world remains terrifying in its unpredictable uncontrollable power. Volcanoes still erupt and people keep building towns near those fertile hills, hoping there won't be a fire next time. Wind still crushes our buildings like matchsticks.
We think we are modern instead of understanding we're just *now* and our helplessness against these acts of the cosmos feels intolerable. But it's just life. People often die of very simple things, not just the monstrosities like cancer. As much as some quarters want to blame all SIDS deaths on vaccines, every civilization has its stories about the mother who wakes to find her infant dead and is driven mad with grief and bargains everything she can think of to whatever god she believes in to reverse this horror. But it's a horror terrible in its ordinariness.