Artwork by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
Over the past two weeks, our Wisconsin weather—always a wild card—has been beyond extreme. We shot up from a high of sixty-one degrees last Wednesday to a high of ninety-five on Thursday (never mind the heat index). That next night the temperature plummeted to the low sixties. This roller coast ride of mercury rising has been punctuated by dangerous thunderstorms, high winds, and tornados. This was all within one week—in June. One might expect these extremes in May or even April, but—in my experience as a witness to (or victim of) Wisconsin weather, this is much more intense than usual.
The reason for all this obvious and has been for some time—at least to those of us who still believe in science. Climate change has come home to roost. Everything the science has predicted has come to pass. Some symptoms of its effects listed on the Global Climate Change Page on the NASA website include an increase in tropical storms (we’ve already seen three named Pacific hurricanes this season: Agatha, Blas, and Celia); rising temperatures (the world mean temperature was 1.5 degrees above average in 2021); more frequent wildfires (see New Mexico and—coming attractions—California); and more intense and frequent precipitation (see flooding in Yellowstone National Park). It’s happening right now, and it’s happening locally, nationally, and globally. More examples of these phenomena are available on the NASA website. It’s happening right before our very eyes.
But nobody is doing anything about it—least of all our government. There doesn’t seem to be any way to make them pay attention to it. Logic isn’t working. It hasn’t been working for years. Neither are emotional pleas. We’ve all seen the TV ads of abandoned polar bears floating away on ice floes, footage of entire neighborhoods annihilated by raging wildfires, shots of clear-cut Amazon rain forests, and even the deaths of millions of animals during the Australian wildfires of 2020. The devastating human impact of Hurricane Katrina was documented in Spike Lee’s award-winning documentary When the Levees Broke. Just recently, the world watched in horror as torrential floods tore through Yellowstone National Park, one of our national treasures, And this is hardly new. For those of us who grew up in the seventies, who can forget the PSA about littering with Iron Eyes Cody, the famous Native American actor, as he viewed a landscape strewn with trash while a single tear rolled down his cheek. Strong stuff. Yet that hasn’t worked either. Our policy makers still turn their backs on the problem.
Apparently, we can’t be shamed into changing, either. Even when Greta Thunberg and the children of the world implore us to save the planet and secure their futures, the powers that be merely snicker and turn their backs.
A friend of mine recently made the very cogent argument that since the likelihood of planets with life-sustaining atmospheres—worlds in the “Goldilocks Zone”, is low relative to the total number of total Earth-sized planets, we should strive to preserve our world precisely because of its uniqueness. Another friend replied, voicing the argument (overheard as a kid) that since the Earth’s fragile ecosystem’s ability to support life is so unique, it must have been the work of a creator (which he points out is a backward argument).
When I pointed out that your average bear is not going to care about this one-of-a-kind quality, that these Yogis would be happier running their ATVs over Joshua Trees in the California desert or writing their names in spray paint on the walls of the Grand Canyon, he maintained this argument would sway those in the middle of the road, that it would provide an objective lens to view the issue—all of which is true, but I fear my friend might have a more favorable view of human nature than me.
I do know that many individuals are doing the right thing. More and more citizens are installing solar power in their homes (even though state tax breaks for doing so are being phased out), buying electric cars or hybrids (even though the State of Wisconsin charges a seventy-five-dollar surcharge on them), and recycling and composting as a matter of course. Individuals have also been working to maintain pollinator populations by planting honeybee favorites like bee balm and participating in no-mow May, when homeowners put off mowing their lawns so bee populations could feast off dandelions, one of their main early season food sources.
The people’s desire to preserve our planet is there. According to a 2022 Yale Climate Opinion Map Poll, over 72% of people believe climate change is happening and 57% of those polled believe it is caused by human activities, but other than dribs and drabs of piecemeal legislation, the United States government—firmly in the grasp of big oil—refuses to act on the will of the people.
Legislators ignoring their constituents is, of course, nothing new. Until very recently, the US Congress has refused to act to address the rise of mass shootings by regulating the gun industry. Even then, it took the wholesale massacre of nineteen fourth graders to impel our legislators to institute even minor changes to the current laws, but AR-15s with extended magazines are still available to eighteen-year-olds in Texas.
Polls also show that a majority of Americans also want women to be able to have an abortion if they choose. And, last but not least, a new Politico/Morning Consult Poll has determined that 57% of Americans think former President Trump was responsible for the January 6th Capitol riots; 67% believe officials involved in the riot should face legal action, yet it reminds doubtful that we’ll ever see him in an orange jumpsuit.
It sems as if most people want a clean and safe environment, schools and public places free from gun violence, and a government willing to defend the Constitution. But we’re not getting it—and we’re probably not going to get it. As M.O., another of my friends put it,
“Here’s the conundrum that I see in our current cultural and political reality. All we can do is what we can do as individuals, and nothing we can do as individuals will have any effect on problems of this magnitude. I hope I am too pessimistic because if I’m not, put a fork in it. The planetary ecosystem and democratic governance are done.”
He may very well be right. Foul weather is on the horizon; we’d better batten down the hatches.