Thoughts on Climate Change

I watched a Moyers and Company episode recently where he interviewed 18-year-old activist, Kelsey Juliana who is walking across America to bring attention to climate change.

He reported that Price Waterhouse recently crunched the numbers regarding the current rate of global warming and said that in 20 years we face catastrophe.

It reminded me of the boiled frog story.

The story states that a frog if placed in boiling water will immediately jump out to save his life. But if immersed in cool water and slowly heated to boil, he WON'T jump. It's so gradual that he gets used to it until it's too late.
 
Although we notice more frequent and intense hurricanes, former snow-capped mountains not so capped with snow, floods, droughts, devastating fires in our desert regions, animal extinctions (including a projected silencing of half of all bird species if nothing significant is done to curb gas emissions), many are still not convinced that climate change is real.

But for those who see these events and relate them to climate change, they may tell themselves this is the new normal and sit in that warming pan of water not believing that those who control the heat source can be convinced to turn it down.

Who am I to stop those in power who get rich from burning these fuels? Eighteen-year-old Kelsey Juliana believes she can have an impact. She knows she must make a stand. She's eighteen and within twenty years she will or will not have an earth like ours to share with her own children. Misguided? Naïve?

Or is it naïve to believe that things are not that bad because our last summer was mild? "Hey, where's the heat?" Some think they won't see any significant changes because real trouble is still so many years away. But I never thought I'd see what I see now in my lifetime.

The projected time frame for facing catastrophe: 20 years!

The time to jump out of the water is NOW. We know what happened to the frog who adjusted to the heat. The slow steady climb in heat fooled his sense of danger. Let's not wait and lie to our children by telling them, "You'll get used to it." 

We must convince those in power we won't take their greedy perspective anymore. What legacy will we leave our children? Let's jump to it and protect the only home we have:

EARTH, as we know it.