“Daddy Daddy, are we there yet?”
“Yes Dear, Wake up the rest of the family. It’s good news! Global warming is here, NOW.”

I’ve been told that the Chinese symbol for ‘crisis’ can have a dual meaning: Trouble or opportunity.

So the question becomes, “where is the opportunity?”

But First, How did we get here? Who’s to blame? And why is this good news?

In the 1940s, 50s and 60s, we in the west we’re fortunate to have the then Soviet Union as our common enemy. Having a common enemy allowed, or forced, us to create and develop NATO, the Space Race, the interstate highway system, along with the myriad technologies that evolved therefrom. All of this activity was unified because we had one, single enemy: Russia.

Along the way, we had abundance plus many new products. For example, we developed plastic bottles to replace glass plus Styrofoam cups which allowed us to easily drink coffee while driving. Our consumption habits were modest through the 60s. Our trash was minimal, thus, we couldn’t see the coming explosion of waste. And, surprisingly, our political parties were also united whereby there was an overlap. Democrats would often vote in favor of a republican bill and vice-versa to support our our common goal of beating and containing Russia. Scientists were concerned with the ionosphere, not as to warming of the planet but because of the hazards of direct radiation.

In the 1980s, Al Gore’s professor was The Lone Ranger predicting future global warming. Early in this century, Gore’s message and movie, An Inconvenient Truth got the ball rolling. And today it is snowballing downward.

In the classic book The Art of War, the feeling that I got was that we can prepare, but all rules or techniques can fall by the wayside when only one issue becomes dominant, survival.

In 1989, we lost our foil, or common enemy, when the Soviet Union collapsed. So, instead of having unity in the western world, we fought amongst ourselves, Party vs Party, country vs country, religion vs religion, race vs race, etc.

So, now comes the setting whereby all opponents are relegated to the scrap heaps.

WE ARE AT WAR.

SURVIVAL IS OUR ONE AND ONLY OPPONENT.

Rich Meyer, Author & Blogger

Related Articles

Dear Greta: How Did We Get Here
Water, Water Everywhere
16 Tons: American Poverty