Dear Friends,
As I enjoyed the beautiful weather the past few days, I wondered how anything could possibly be wrong with our climate. The air was clear, birds filled our back yard and life seemed idyllic (at least in Northern California). But a grim reminder hit us as Beth and I drove to a nice dinner out.
Smoke on the horizon, a controlled burn gone bad in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It’s easy to be alarmed when smokey haze fills the air, or the paper is full of climate related disasters.
But humans seem to have a short term memory problem as soon as things clear up. I think it’s the same with Covid. When someone in your family gets it, you become extra careful and concerned, like when my brother came down with it.
But now that he is healthy, and most of my friends and relatives hopefully are as well, it is difficult to maintain that resolve.
The climate crisis has not gone away. It is still very real, and very threatening. But it is hard to get excited about it, what with short term memory lapses and beautiful days.
I think in large part, it is due to our conditioning and instincts, to forget the bad stuff after it happens, and focus on the new, as if the past hadn’t happened.
Unfortunately, real life doesn’t work that way. We can’t just forget and ignore the smoky days, the drought, the weather disasters, the devastating fires, etc. These are still happening, perhaps not in our back yard, but somewhere.
This is where motivation is needed, to press forward in our efforts to combat climate change. I realize it is hard to remain motived and on alert when there are no disasters staring you inn the face.
So how do we find that motivation, that drive to keep working, to stay on top off this life threatening problem. For me it’s quite simple.
For Our Children, Grandchildren, all Future Generations and All Life.
Bill