Hot and dark

Holy Moly! If the blackout on Saturday didn’t make us sit up and worry about the type of ecological disasters we have to look forward to, I don’t know what will. I know, I know. The power outage was caused by “a fire” at the Napanee Generating Station. Politically speaking, let’s not talk about a potentially overloaded system that might have melted down. I couldn’t help but feel it was a warning shot as LOML and I scrambled to unplug things as we whinged about not having second cups of coffee. The earth has been experiencing the hottest weather conditions in the history of keeping weather records. Yet we continue to sweat and wait for some level of government to do something about climate change. The climate is changing. Fearing the truth, a whole lot of folks have been pointing to historic weather-related events suggesting what we’re experiencing is just a blip like that time it rained for forty days and nights. Deep inside we know it isn’t just a blip. And, honestly, there isn’t any level of government with the guts to put some punch into any kind of climate change legislation. But big change is what the whole world needs to—at least—control this spiral. We’ve still got a little bit of time to get things right, but we don’t have long. The time we have left to make wise choices and impactful changes is now being measured in years. And we all know how quickly the years pass.

Don’t even think about telling me I’m being naive about climate change. Don’t even think about telling me alternative energy won’t work. Don’t even think about telling me we’ll be okay. I know enough about what’s happening to be very afraid. It’s what I don’t know that has me terrified. We are way past the point where climate change isn’t a concern for our generation and the next. I would bet most of us have placed ourselves firmly in the category of thinking we have centuries before a complete climate disaster happens. We’re almost at the tipping point, and not in a good way. The disastrous weather events are happening now. Recently I read an article about a couple who had changed their summer travel plans from the usual fun-in-the-sun cottage trip to taking a trip to the Antarctic. They felt if they didn’t go now, the whole concept of what Antarctica is will be gone before their days are numbered. What the H E Double Hockey Sticks! They believe, and rightly so, if they don’t visit the South Pole region now it’ll be gone during their lifetime—and those travellers are a lot younger than LOML and I are. All I could think was “It’s people like you, travelling to environmentally fragile areas, like Antarctica, who are contributing to the big problem of climate change.” How stupid and selfish is that mindset, the “Let’s go see it before it goes away” mindset? They’ve missed the point.

Their travel story scared the digested bits of food-not-passed right out of me. Pardon my mental-graphics. We are on the brink, kiddies. It’s not time to see it before it goes away forever. This isn’t a Boxing Day sale. We should be way past joking about electric vehicles, solar power, wind turbines and carbon footprints. I’m tired of little cartoons of vehicles attached to a charging cord and jokes about solar powered air travel. Alternative energy doesn’t have to be a joke if money is spent to make sure it’s viable. Pass the coal scuttle. But here we are, throwing precious billions at Doug Ford’s plan to build the Bradford Bypass through the Holland Marsh and pretending it isn’t our problem and it won’t affect climate. This kind of forward thinking, to save someone 12 minutes in their commute, isn’t right—and it is our problem. It is part of the big problem. The Bradford Bypass, for instance, is a very real threat to food and water supplies and will contribute to the continuance of extreme heat and flooding events along with massive economic loss to the people who farm that region.

The WHO calls climate change the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century. Greenhouse gas concentrations are at their highest level in two million years. It isn’t just about warmer weather. We’re now seeing the “droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and the decline of biodiversity”. But, heck, let’s vote for another freeway. Let’s joke about alternative sources of energy. Let’s continue on our way, because folks my age, and older, will not be around when being in the dark will be an everyday occurrence.

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca