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Reality [1]

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Date: 2025-01-24

I have been reading a book by Ben Ehrenreich called Desert Notebooks: A Roadmap For the End of Time. Although he is writing about the Mojave Desert and my experience is with the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts, it certainly hits a chord with me. As a almost lifetime desert rat (over 60 years along the Arizona-New Mexico border with Mexico) I am sympathetic.

As I noted in my last diary, impermanence is a hallmark of existence. Everything will change, whether we like it or not. The only addition to this rule is that under human caused Climate Change the alterations are now happening much more quickly than any other time not governed by asteroid strikes or massive volcanism. The borderlands are not exceptions to this rule and, in fact, are prime examples, along with the Arctic and Antarctic. Ehrenreich follows up this idea with the fact that Southern California is drying out rapidly and that Los Angeles is especially hard hit, noting that he just barely escaped a wild fire during his life in the City of the Angels. I’m not sure how he has been affected by the current disaster, but as he says, Los Angeles is destined for continued disasters (as are the states of Florida and Louisiana, and the cities of Washington, D. C., Annapolis, and New York, among others) as Global Climate Change advances beyond the 1.5 degree barrier. It reached 1.6 degrees in 2024 (See: www.pbs.org/....) and shows no sign of going down any time in the near future. While the election (and now reelection) of the person Ehrenreich calls “The Rhino” doesn’t help, we were not gaining all that much ground before him, as evidenced by our reaching the worldwide rise of 1.6 degrees! In essence we will soon be heading for that cliff with a souped-up sports car instead of a broken down Volkswagen, but neither administration was going to avert the disaster. Los Angeles just demonstrated that reality. Whether we like it or not, it is rapidly becoming totally uneconomic to rebuild areas flooded by rising seas, destroyed by more intense hurricanes, and of course, burned up by fires. Unfortunately, ignoring this may well be a human flaw that will only led to more trouble, as, for example, the ”Rhino” should never have seen the halls of power and we will all pay dearly for this mistake in just this one, but vital, area. If it makes anyone feel any better, we will fair just as badly in other areas. This error in selecting bad leadership in this troubled time is not unique to us, as we can see from the quality of leaders in a number of countries around the planet.

We humans like fallguys; people we can blame for the ills that we encounter in our lives, rather than blaming ourselves or factors no one can control, like bird flu. This is one basis for the Rhino having so many adherents. He plays to this natural tendency that is engendered, as Lincoln would say, by the worse angels of our nature. This is a major reason that racism and misogyny are so prevalent in any age. If you are a man (which I am), there are always women to blame for your own flaws. Heaven forbid that we men actually own up to our own sins! If you are white (which I also am), the ills of society can be blamed on people of color. Of course that can be reversed, but since white males have most of the power we can place the major part of the blame on these others. The reality is simply to face the fact that the flaws are not exclusive to one sex or “race,” or to intellectuals, or rednecks, but are owned by all. Saying that the descendants of Lilith or Eve, or Ham, are the cause of all our social ills is a copout, but an attractive one to the “he-men,” the “religiously” inclined, and also to many who worship the great god Mazuma.

Another reality that is that often the belief in human progress inclines some to defining “progress” to mean pilliege of the natural world. This is one reason I have difficulty with the word “progressive.” That word has been so corrupted by the ravagers. A world that strives to be sustainable and with equal justice for all is ananthama to some people, who see it as not real progress, and some others who hope for their own gain if they just play along with “human advancement.” However, in truth, we all bear some responsibility in this, as we use the plastic, gasoline, coal and technology involved in that progress, which may, in the long run, kill us all.

As my younger daughter pointed out to me, a good part of the problem is the attitude that many humans have: the belief that we were given dominion over the earth by a supreme being. God will never destroy the earth again, as he did in the flood, according to their interpretation of their Bible, and thus humans have the right to pillage the Earth, with God replenishing it before we go over the edge. This idea seems to be based on the belief that we are not animals, but made in the image of God, and thus a little lower than the angels. In my view this is a false hope, even if one is religious, and also a convenient argument against ever doing anything to mitigate the coming disaster. They can just go on destroying the planet, as they have a sugar daddy who will fix anything they screw up, without their ever having to endure the slightest inconvenience. If anybody does suffer, in their minds, it is because they sinned and are being punished. This, of course, relieves them of all blame. If there is a God who was represented by Jesus on this earth I doubt that he would be pleased by our lack of stewardship. I base this thought on Christ’s actual teaching, not on the prosperity gospel according to saint Rhino!

However, reality has a habit of biting one in the arse when it is ignored. Our species has already nearly become extinct at least twice in geologic history because of natural disasters (See: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...), and there is no reason to believe that we are so special that our current folly will go unpunished. Not because there are necessarily gods or a god to do so, but because of natural cause and effect. If you consume your resources totally, you have nothing for the future. The Ancient Greeks invented the word that describes the attitude involved- hubris. And, boy, do many of us have that in spades!

I try very hard not to be nihilistic about the future, but it is also hard not to feel discouraged. One of my friends has taken it upon herself to advocate for the earth and I agree with her that much would be solved if we had better respect and reverence for the our home planet and appreciation for the support that it gives us. This would, of course, imply an admission that we are animals and actually dependent on the earth’s services, and that is something we humans have a hard time admitting. Until we do, and as we continue breeding ourselves into privation, we will also continue our blind trajectory toward oblivion. Maybe we will see the light. I sure hope so, but we are about to give our prospects of having a future a very severe test. In regard to the last election, I will leave you with what the voters who went on this bender should have had as their motto: Caveat Emptor. They will find out what this means in short order, if my guess is correct.

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