Mueller Lake Park Outdoor Amphitheater
You Can't Eat Money
RECEIVED Tue., April 9, 2019
Dear Editor,
The climate crisis is simply the impeding death of all biological life on Earth. The first rule of ecology is that everything is connected to everything; the circle of life. Half of the world’s wildlife is gone in 40 years. 70% of insects, scientists deem this the insect apocalypse. 150-200 species go extinct every day. Climate change’s evil twin, ocean acidification, warns us that 2/3 of the planet is under immense stress. Scientists warn that the oceans have absorbed 93% of all CO2 emitted. If that CO2 had not been absorbed by the atmosphere, it would be 97°F hotter than it is now. While the oceans have absorbed all the heat, they will release it in a 10-30 year time lag, resulting in a +3°C global temperature rise. There is no way of sequestering that much carbon from the ocean. The coral reefs have all but been declared dead by scientists warning that 99% of all coral reefs will be dead due to coral bleaching. We are living in what scientists call the Anthropocene, where Homo sapiens are the main geophysical power shaping the planet. The last time the Earth warmed this much, 87% of all life on Earth died. We are fed the lie by the Republicans that nothing is happening, and the lie of the Democrats which is that we can adapt even though no one spells out how.
More than half of the all the carbon emissions have happened since Seinfeld premiered 30 years ago in 1989. I was not alive then.
To quote the Cree Indian saying: “When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.”
All this means one thing: no food, no clean water, and toxified air. The only thing future generations will care about is the health of the planet for which all life is dependent on.
The climate crisis is about discovering what it takes to be human. What it means to be alive. The meaning of life is to confront radical evil even if there is no empirical evidence of success. The only hope rests in the resistance. To put your body on the line because you choose to stand up for life, because you choose to honor the sacred, because you choose love over money, over hatred, and over death.
The climate crisis is simply the impeding death of all biological life on Earth. The first rule of ecology is that everything is connected to everything; the circle of life. Half of the world’s wildlife is gone in 40 years. 70% of insects, scientists deem this the insect apocalypse. 150-200 species go extinct every day. Climate change’s evil twin, ocean acidification, warns us that 2/3 of the planet is under immense stress. Scientists warn that the oceans have absorbed 93% of all CO2 emitted. If that CO2 had not been absorbed by the atmosphere, it would be 97°F hotter than it is now. While the oceans have absorbed all the heat, they will release it in a 10-30 year time lag, resulting in a +3°C global temperature rise. There is no way of sequestering that much carbon from the ocean. The coral reefs have all but been declared dead by scientists warning that 99% of all coral reefs will be dead due to coral bleaching. We are living in what scientists call the Anthropocene, where Homo sapiens are the main geophysical power shaping the planet. The last time the Earth warmed this much, 87% of all life on Earth died. We are fed the lie by the Republicans that nothing is happening, and the lie of the Democrats which is that we can adapt even though no one spells out how.
More than half of the all the carbon emissions have happened since Seinfeld premiered 30 years ago in 1989. I was not alive then.
To quote the Cree Indian saying: “When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.”
All this means one thing: no food, no clean water, and toxified air. The only thing future generations will care about is the health of the planet for which all life is dependent on.
The climate crisis is about discovering what it takes to be human. What it means to be alive. The meaning of life is to confront radical evil even if there is no empirical evidence of success. The only hope rests in the resistance. To put your body on the line because you choose to stand up for life, because you choose to honor the sacred, because you choose love over money, over hatred, and over death.
Alex Norton
