2021 Life Logs, Day 318: Endings and Beginnings
Date: Sunday, November 14, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Much Cooler; High Temp 62, Low Temp 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The storm last night blew in cooler weather. It looks like our wonderfully warm fall weather is ending, bringing us the beginning of more normal, cool fall weather. I was loving the warmth, but all good things must come to an end.
And speaking of coming to an end, the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, came to an end with agreements but no major steps forward. The diplomats struck an agreement that called on governments to return next year with stronger plants to curb emissions. I heard Bill Nye, the Science Guy, in an interview tonight say something that stuck with me. Personal decisions to recycle our plastic water bottles is not going to do it. We need whole government, whole world stronger plans now. But COP26 has ended. Bill Nye said the most important personal decision we can make is to talk about the climate emergency relentlessly to everyone we know. This can be our new beginning of heightened awareness.
According to an opinion piece in the NYT last week, one of the most compelling voices in Glasgow was the earth system scientist Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “We have more and more evidence that the planet is more fragile than we thought,” said Rockström. So it may be hard, it may be impossible, but his is not time to give up on trying to phase out fossil fuels and prevent these tipping points from tipping. Otherwise, we will be the punchline to a bad joke that made the rounds in Glasgow. Here’s the not at all funny joke.
Two plants are talking to each other. One looks like a beautiful blue marble and the other a dirty brown ball.
“What on earth happened to you?” the beautiful planet asks the brown one.
“I had Home sapiens,” answers the brown planet.
“Don’t worry,” says the blue planet. “They don’t last long.”
Let’s all begin talking about the climate emergency to spread awareness and hopefully to save Homo sapien selves!
