Our Climate and Ecological Predicament

There are no easy answers and, I’m sorry to say, no solutions either. Our climate and ecological emergency is not a problem, it is a predicament.

We’re not gonna solve anything with a plastic bag ban, more electric cars or a new strain of bacteria that magically absorbs pollution. These fairy tales keep us from facing reality and taking meaningful action.

We didn’t get to this predicament overnight. More than 200 years of extraction, destroying land, burning fuels and spraying poisons got us here.

Our addiction to ease and convenience are going to need to end. Everything will need to change as we face this predicament like grown adults. Especially if we have kids. Those under the age of 30 will live lives drastically different from the ones we have lived. As Greta Thunberg says, “Change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

We’ve all ben tip toeing around this predicament for way too long. We’ve sugar coated it, we’ve even flat out ignored it, thinking it will be solved by some innovative technology. Now we are at a point where the time for incremental change has passed. Baby steps won’t work when a building is on fire.

Let’s start telling the truth. And act as if the truth were real. This is the first demand of Extinction Rebellion, an international movement that has expanded into 72 countries in the past year. I’ve been involved with XR in many capacities, and I recommend you join too. www.rebellion.earth