climate change--why do we believe it, why do we not believe it,

A lot has been said about climate change in the last 5 years.  Most of us had heard the term, in close association with greenhouse effect, ozone depletion and the size of our carbon footprint, before it became a political issue.

Most of us had sort of believed it, made tiny concessions like  not running the car in the driveway while getting ready for work, not eating on nothing but Styrofoam plates, not making 10 trips to the store for 10 items, recycling--when it was easy and convenient or they paid us; that kind of thing.

Most of us sort of believed it because it made sense.

Many of us didn't want to believe it because it meant we needed to do something different.  We had help not believing.  Some of our leaders, the same leaders that told us that sugar was good for us and cigerette smoke wouldn't hurt you and the only moral way to stop kids from getting pregnant or catching a disease was to not have sex until they were married, have found scientists to back them up.

Scientists like money as much as the next guy.  While scientific purists wouldn't do it, those scientists that have no problems making bombs, no problem cheating on their research for drug safety and no problem swearing to a theory that others find ridiculous, can always be counted on to say what the guy with the money wants them to say.  Being a scientist doesn't guarantee ethical behavior or honesty.

The problem with climate change is:

1. it is pretty slow
2. it is mostly not very dramatic
3. it looks a lot like the normal variation from one year to the next.
4. in geologic time--we have already had climate change--we think 5 times so what is the big deal, and humans didn't cause them (the dinosaurs are still dead, the endless waters parted, the ice age helped create racial diversity, and who knows how many species never left a single fossil so its like they never existed 

The reason that powerful people want to deny climate change is obvious.  Their business models are all based on doing what we do now the way we do it now.

It's very profitable NOT to have to redo the factories, NOT to have to change the materials we use in the widgets we sell for massive profit, NOT to have to pay for research and development of new ways to do things that aren't so hard on the ecosystems of the earth.
And--they do NOT want to sell the idea of "LESS IS MORE", selling less does not make more profit.  They like there consumers buying more, More, MORE!

We may have all quaked at the number of shoes Imelda Marco had in her closet in 1986, but these days, that just meant she was a hoarder, if she had bought 365 pairs a year and thrown them out or sent them to Goodwill after one wearing, no one would even raise an eyebrow these days.
We buy more.  We make more trash than ever.  We use disposable, and these days, everything is disposable.

We Consume!!!  WE ARE LOCUST!

What would we do with ourselves if our lives were not the way they are now?  (be bored? write blogs? volunteer at the shelter? take a class? talk to a friend? make something out of used stuff?)

Those of us that are comfortably consuming; buying and buying, driving and driving, eating and tossing, trashing and discarding---we are living the life of ease.  Or at least the life the media tells us is a sign we have succeeded.

Those of us that are not able to buy whatever we want, that are shopping in goodwill, cooking instead of buying prepared, have a goal of becoming the media darling that has no worries about such things.  Success is just around the corner.

Those of us that are trying to be less wasteful, trying to eat more earth-friendly foods, grow our own, cook our own and compost the remains; that limit their consumption of widgets, buy used, recycle, walk more, ride bikes, read labels and avoid buying products with excess packaging, chemical additives, poor production processes--we are ridiculed as eccentric, weirdo's or avoided as outright crazy.

We want to be the person on the American TV drama.  Not the geek on the sitcom, not the pathetic creature on lifetime that needs saving--unless she is also rich and beautiful, but the rich, powerful man or woman that is living the American dream.

In the American Dream, there is no Climate change, just endless seasons of love, beauty, human drama and consuming of products. 

If you can't be rich and greedy, you can always be shallow and consuming.

Remember, the earth made it through the other instances of climate change.  It was still here, changed but here. 

The Dinosaurs, Trilobites, Mammoths are not.

GO EARTH!