No Time for Apathy - Confronting the Climate Change Crisis
Alright, folks, I reckon I'm flogging a dead horse here, but with a blog that draws a fair share of eyes, I have a duty to address some heavy shit. This is some real heavy stuff man, like trying to deadlift your PR after a night of tequila shots. But we need to hoist this burden, shoulder this weight with every damn ounce of strength we have. Because if we don't, we'll be crushed under its enormity.
A staggering number of between 24,501 and 61,672 individuals succumbed to European heatwaves last year. The ones holding the reins - they'd honestly let every living thing perish, so long as they can flaunt their riches amidst the ruins. The world, every being inhabiting it, they'd sacrifice it all for a few extra zeros in their bank account. This is our grim reality, no sugar-coating it. They have their blueprint for the future, but where do we, the everyday folks, fit into this plan? We're either slated for the grave or destined to serve in their billion-dollar apocalypse havens. Check it out: Doomsday Bunkers Article.
Let's not kid ourselves into thinking that this is something we can simply vote our way out of. The Republicans flatly deny that climate change exists, while the Democrats, well, they're no knights in shining armor either.
Look at Biden. He's approved more drilling than Trump, despite promises to the contrary. His administration even green-lit the Willow Project, which garnered over 2 million signatures in opposition. Where's our democracy in that? It's an illusion, a farce.
Let me break it down for you. One party candidly admits they can't acknowledge climate change because it's a threat to their profit-making machinery. The other party says, "Yes, climate change is real, but let's try to solve it without disrupting our economy too much." Our economy? No, it's the ecomony of the rich, we see no benefit from their "economy". So, what's the translation? We're not going to genuinely tackle this crisis because there's just too much money to be made from it. You should be damn pissed. I sure as hell am. I voted for Biden. Why? Because he vowed no new drilling. But what did we get? More drilling on federal lands than Trump sanctioned. So how does that square with the "Vote blue no matter who and we'll save the world" mantra?
Here's the harsh truth, folks - at the end of the day, there is no democracy, only oligarchy. The two-party system? It's just a charade to convince you otherwise. And isn't it just fucking perfect that an 80-year-old man, who's got one foot in the grave, gets to wreak havoc on generations he'll never meet? There's an old adage that says, "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." Well, our society has morphed into a perverse version of that. Our elders aren't planting trees for the future; they're chopping them down for immediate gain, damning the consequences for future generations. And what's even more fucked up? Media outlets like Politifact try to justify these actions, manufacturing consent as they go. Check it out here: Politifact Article.
Then we've got the fossil fuel giants, like Shell, British Petroleum, Texaco and others who fucking knew about climate change as far back as 1977, by their own admission! Check it out at Scientific American. They've set us on a collision course with disaster. They've doomed every single species on this lush, vibrant Earth. The polar bear, the elephants, our generation and all those to come – all at the mercy of their greed. They wanted to rule the ruins, fattening their wallets while the world crumbled around them. What a fucking joke.
Don't delude yourself into thinking, "Oh, this is an issue for people 200 years down the line – they'll work it out." Bullshit. It's happening NOW, and if WE don't get our act together, what's going to be left of the world in 200 years? A barren wasteland, where the once thriving forests are charred skeletons, the oceans are oxygen-starved deserts, and the few surviving species battle for existence in a hellscape of our making.
We're teetering on the brink of an abyss even Lovecraft couldn't describe, folks. It's high time we wrestled back control from those nudging us towards the edge of the cliff, instead of spouting bullshit about how plummeting to our doom somehow benefits the economy of those doing the pushing! Enough of their insidious excuses! Our lives are worth more than being pawns in their deadly game of profit and power. We must rise and seize the reins of our future, or else become victims of our own undoing.
So let's not pussyfoot around this: There's no cataclysmic event so grave that it'll wake up the powers-that-be to the climate catastrophe we're living. Remember, we're dealing with a system primarily run by sociopaths for the benefit of sociopaths. They would let New York City drown beneath an ice sheet collapse and still find a way to downplay it, feeding us diluted truths through media channels they control. We've seen this callous indifference play out before during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when thousands died daily, and the world carried on, almost desensitized. This same bleak detachment is playing out with the climate crisis.
Oh, and don't be fooled by the recent record-breaking summers. They're not anomalies; they're the new normal. The truth is, it's only going to keep getting hotter, and with the relentless gears of capitalism churning away, the rate of global warming is set to increase exponentially. Take for example, that while the world has experienced the hottest two weeks in the last 100,000 years, Shell, lead by CEO Wael Sawan, has made record breaking profits. Shell Profits Report. If you ask me, CEOs like Wael belong on the gallows, the same as we did to the Nazis after World War Two for their crimes against humanity. Stop looking at these soaring temperatures as "this is the hottest summer ever," and start realizing, "this is the coolest summer for the rest of my life." This perspective shift isn't about fostering a sense of doom, but about acknowledging the urgency of the situation.
Let me put it this way. The year 2050 is just 27 years away. We're so damn close to that supposed 'turning point'. Kurt Cobain's been gone for 29 years – doesn't feel that long, does it? Shit, we're closer to 2030 than we are to the Harlem Shake fad. This isn't a problem for future generations; it's OUR problem, because we are the "future generation" left to mop up the mess. We can't pass this burden onto the next generations with the same rhetoric that has screwed us over.
Consider this - none of the goals you're working towards, the dreams you harbor, or the life you aspire to have can exist in a desolate, climate-ravaged world.
I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a footnote in the history books as the generation that sat back and let the world crumble. I want us to be remembered as the generation that stood up, fought back, and said, "No, we won't let our planet die!"