59.4 F
Fremont
November 12, 2024

08-29-23 Dodging bullets

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Action novels and movies often feature a protagonist fighting long odds and dodging bullets, but eventually completing a mission although sometimes with a bruise or two. Those who have actually participated in such combat know the results are problematic at best.  When faced with real challenges and determined opponents, outcomes are uncertain.

 

Conflicts between individuals or small and large groups are often unpredictable due to the human factor of emotion and motivation, but can be diffused through diplomacy. However, when problems arise with natural phenomena, talk and reason cannot substitute for action.

 

When another person holds a gun pointed at you, there is an opportunity to reduce tension and chances for a positive outcome. If an inanimate being holds the gun with instructions to respond to your presence by pulling the trigger, options are limited.

 

Mother Nature has had enough mistreatment by humanity and has not only pointed her weapons but pulled the trigger. Bullets are flying as oceans warm and rise, wildfires rage, earthquakes rumble, hurricanes and floods surge and the land bakes under superheated domes of high pressure.

 

Societies across the globe are busy dodging nature’s bullets with an uneven record of success. Recognition and action have been slow, even as evidence mounts and catastrophic events grow exponentially. The fate of our children and their children hangs in the balance. Although local jurisdictions have responded to these challenges, the problem extends far beyond their boundaries. Every person has a stake in the outcome of this struggle, a battle for survival.

 

Those who recoil from terminology such as “climate change” or “green” can use any moniker they like (cyclical changes?), but need to recognize the serious and existential threat posed by global warming. Without a unified and determined response, catastrophic upheavals will continue to mount, becoming unsustainable for life as we know it. Bullets are flying and we, the human protagonists in this scenario, are bound to be hit by many of them. Will the bullet strikes be fatal?

 

 

Last year we said, ‘Things can’t go on like this’, and they didn’t, they got worse.

 

Will Rogers

 

 

 

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