Growing up in San Diego, I watched lots of surfers. Being in the right spot, at the right time, moving in the right direction, the world gives a great ride. Being in the wrong spot, or at the wrong time, or moving in the wrong direction, you could get pounded, broken, or even killed. This metaphor for life shows the benefit of awareness of the whole system. Being in harmony with life is beneficial, while being out of harmony is painful. This is true for society as well.
We are into our fifth month of painful disharmony at the top of the federal government. Many people still believe what they are being told. Multiple pronouns are the problem. Immigrants are the problem. Foreign alliances are the problem. Courts are the problem. Government is the problem. Billionaires know what’s best.
But people are having second thoughts. The economy stopped growing, and is now contracting. Locally we have already seen cuts in fire safety, mental health, food aid, and education. The uncertainty of tariffs makes business decisions riskier. Core costs vary widely. Anything imported is more costly. Commercial shipping into the U.S. West Coast has plummeted. Food and gasoline prices jumped higher. Tourism, a key to our county economy, is slowing down. Some results from U.S. threats to Canada. Some is due to the general caution, as disposable income shrinks with rising prices.
Geopolitical risks are growing. America is no longer a trusted partner in defense, as we threaten to invade our neighbors on a presidential whim. America is no longer trusted economically either, as established trading relationships are destroyed and our credit rating has been downgraded. The role of the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency has been slowly eroding for decades, but is now very much in question, as erratic behavior at the top brings everything into question. The winner here is China, which has been actively working to replace the dollar in the global marketplace.
Based on our leader’s actions, there is question as to whether he is working for a foreign government, or just for his own corrupt gains, or is demonstrating progressive mental decline. For another government to gain advantage, or his personal wealth to be relevant, Earth has to remain habitable for humans. Furthermore, the issues of gender identity, immigration, economic upheaval, and geopolitical gains are age old struggles which take place within the underlying assumption of a habitable planet. But the climate crisis, if left unaddressed, is making Earth uninhabitable for humans.
Therefore, to my mind, his absolute rejection of any consideration of the climate concern is an act of mental insanity. A sane person entertains the possibility their opinions might be wrong, or at least incomplete. Instead, we see a rejection of any mention, let alone investigation, that the climate is rapidly changing. Every department in the National Science Foundation, which funds basic research in many fields, is being shut down. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which funds weather research and reporting, is being decimated and parts of the country no longer have 24-hour weather information. Studies that monitor the physical reality of our climate are being closed down.
Assessment of the risk the changing climate poses to the financial and building industries has been abolished. But the insurance industry knows it can no longer use past events to reliably predict future risk. Even the fossil fuel industry knows “drill, baby, drill” is bankrupt, and has acknowledged that global oil production has peaked, becoming less affordable, even if available.
This denial of information is in addition to defunding the modest domestic attempts to stop adding to the problem, which worked to shift energy production from combustion of increasingly scarce resources to collecting the free energy already falling on the planet. The U.S. used to lead the rest of the world, but we are out of harmony with reality, essentially choosing to invest in buggy whips in response to the automobile revolution. This leaves China in a position to become the global leader in production of solar panels and EV transportation.
Reality eventually overwhelms insanity, and so we wait to see how it unfolds. Will we soon experience a recession, or even a depression? Will politicians become courageous? Will it take civil unrest? Or a massive climate disaster? Or a critical mass of awakened consciousness? We are all in this together, and must stop pretending otherwise.
Crispin B. Hollinshead lives in Ukiah. This and previous articles can be found at cbhollinshead.blogspot.com.
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