I remember about 10 years ago being at a social gathering, and the subject of climate change had come up. The majority of people there were over 50 (I was in my late 40s), and the general consensus was “well, not my problem, I’ll be long gone before climate change becomes an issue.”
Afterwards, I thought about that for a bit and it really bothered me on two levels. First and foremost, I was really taken aback by the level of cruelty and lack of empathy in that statement, even if the people saying it most likely didn’t really think about it on those terms. People were even chuckling about it. But the thing is, you see, that was saying “sucks to be you” to people under 40 about potentially living in a future world full of great suffering and pain. Hahaha, grandkids, young co-workers, nieces/nephews, children of close friends…sorry about the future you face but ain’t my problem, so LOL. But again, people often do not think about what they are saying, even if you do not have to dive very deep into the realities of climate change to see how this was kind of messed up.
The other level of this is, as we are seeing, that was wishful thinking. From elderly people getting second-degree burns from falling on the sidewalk in Phoenix last summer to massive flooding events in places like Miami and Houston to a potentially devastating hurricane season looming, the effects of climate change are here. There’s a pretty solid chance that a person who has said “HA! Climate change? I’ll be long gone before the effects are a problem” has died due to something related to climate change.
Climate effects take many forms. One is how poorly our infrastructure seems to be prepared for it, such as the heat-related Amtrack delays in the Northeast this week. Or the massive Canadian wildfires last year that brought choking smoke to many areas east of the Mississippi. Or monkeys in Mexico literally dropping dead from the heat.
These are difficult to ignore or deny, but of course, the right-wing lives in a world free of things like reality or making sense, so any attempts at fixing all this or even mentioning it brings a sometimes violent response from the wingnuts. Just ask this meteorologist in Des Moines, who received multiple death threats for talking about it on air.
We live in a time when people seem to believe their anger makes them right despite all evidence, and climate change is yet another example of that. Sneering about stupid hippies telling you how to live won’t stop cat 5 hurricanes from forming in a record-warm Atlantic. The loudest and most powerful of the anti-climate crowd, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, calls it a “Chinese hoax.”
This is reason enough to vote for Joe Biden. In fact, Biden has taken concrete steps at remediating climate change, the most action taken against global warming that any American president has ever carried out. It is not enough, of course, but it is a start, and electing Trump to a second term will destroy any progress we have made in the last three or so years.
Those of us over 50 can no longer laugh at our teen relatives about how climate change is their problem, not ours. Nature keeps making that point to us. Even if you can’t work up the empathy for the young people in your lives, you can at least vote for a party that is trying to make the world you will spend your final days in a better place.
The last word goes to Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover).
