Democracy’s failure?
Iwas long ago convinced that democratically-elected representative government provided the best and fairest governance for everyone. And I also believe the free-market capitalist economy provides the best goods and services to the most people at the fairest prices.
But as for being responsive to our ever-changing needs, both systems are reactive rather than proactive in nature and don’t always produce the best results.
In metaphorical terms, the horse must be out and loose on the town before anyone thinks to close the barn door. And in protecting our fragile environment and preserving our finite natural resources, our democratic government and free market economic system have been largely ineffective.
All of today’s scientific indicators affirm that the earth’s temperature has been steadily rising since we changed from wood to fossil fuels, coal and oil, in the early 1800s. These are not the doomsday predictions or half-baked theories of cloistered academics, but observable, measurable, verifiable facts available to anyone who is genuinely concerned about our future.
The steady rising of the oceans has been independently observed and measured for some time now and humancaused earth warming verified by 97% of the world’s climatologists.
Then why do some of us, a supposedly educated, informed and concerned people, choose to blithely ignore these ominous warnings? And the sobering fact is that environmental warming cannot be reversed, only slowed or possibly halted if we’re lucky. But, regrettably, we cannot re-freeze the polar ice cap.
Conservative naysayers retort: “The earth is warming? Don’t tell me that! We
had 6 inches of snow in Baltimore only yesterday.” Yes, and there will continue to be other similar atypical climatic events all over the world. But the overall trend is a steady, relentless warming of the earth with no sustained reversals since the early 1800s.
There is today no reliable evidence to refute the fact of global warming. None. Doubters need to make an independent investigation of their own instead of relying on the words of partisan politicians or those who have a financial stake in the fossil fuel industry. Not surprisingly, they are all clustered in one political party.
Neither I nor my children will be much affected by the looming climate changes; but I have grandchildren, great-grandchildren and more on the way. I am deeply concerned about their welfare down the road as well as that of all humankind.
Our politicians seem to have taken a cue from today’s corporate officers and shareholders who care little about the long-range welfare and viability of their corporations. They are only concerned about the next quarterly earnings report, a preoccupation with short-range profits. And these same doctrinaire conservatives appear to feel the same way about the planet’s sustainability. My old German-speaking aunt had a word for this type of thinking: “dum.”
I’ll say it again: didn’t God promise in the Book of Genesis that He would never again destroy the earth by flood? But He didn’t say He wouldn’t allow His stupid children, if they insist, to destroy it themselves through their own elective ignorance and pigheadedness.