Suffering the penalty of greed, excess and hubris

It has been said that the effects of alcohol when consumed to excess is its own punishment. A bad hangover may be a justly earned and fitting reward for one individual who, by choice, overindulged in drink. Fortunately for the rest of us who said “NO” to another round or to the bottle entirely, the physical consequences of drunkenness are not visited upon us. A person who drinks to excess may or may not have been educated, informed or counseled beforehand as to how ill intoxicating liquors can make them when too much is ingested, but the effects of doing so can certainly command their attention for a relatively short period of time afterward. When the nausea and malaise of too much booze grip them the morning after, all opinion about drinking takes a back seat to suffering. In cases of “too much to drink,” nearly all have a high likelihood of avoidability. Even still, every person must make their own decision to imbibe and have the immediate benefit of a short-term buzz. That decision comes with the understanding that alcohol in any amount comes with many associated risks. Among these are overconsumption and its aftereffects as well as potentially acquiring an addictive habit which may lead to damage to and possibly destruction of health, home, family and future.

If only the human global addiction to the use of fossil fuels had been presented to every Citizen of Earth in similar fashion fifty years ago. Alternatives to petroleum energy now appear quite appealing in hindsight. Today, even while the effects of climate change are becoming ever more apparent, the United States and much of the rest of the nations on the planet remain hopelessly addicted to carbon-based fuels as a primary energy source.

Nobody can say we’ve been blindsided by the cause of extreme weather phenomena over the past two decades. It isn’t like we were never warned about where our habits and consumption of carbon resources would take us if perpetuated and increased. It has become a global problem we can no longer ignore. Neither can we tolerate being placated by the naysayers and deniers, especially those in elected office, who stubbornly cling to their opinion because their political credibility and financial bottom line depends on it. Science has been aware of this growing alteration and has repeatedly sounded the warning on it as far back as the 1950s. We as a species must acknowledge that climate change is real. We must also embrace the reality that WE are the cause of it! If we cannot or are unwilling to act on the causes of this universal climb in temperature, then we deserve the insufferable consequences on our way to our own extinction! So many of us are now paying the price of ignorance, arrogance and dismissive lack of action on the crisis all because key policymakers refuse to understand the simple difference between CLIMATE and WEATHER as the planet’s temperature continues to climb slowly but steadily unchecked.

Even before summer, wildfires were raging throughout the west while a 20-year drought continues to ravage previously semi-arid locales. After having so many consecutive extreme heat days with high temperatures in excess of 100 degrees F along this, the most conservative stretch of Old Route 66, some diehard skeptics are still posing the query, “Are the effects of global elevated temperature really that bad?” Well, yes, they are. It was reported this past week that the Arctic is heating up four times faster than the whole planet. This will have a significant impact on the lives of those living far away from the polar regions and already has for so many this summer. As the increase greenhouse gasses continue to contribute to higher temperatures and melting of polar ice, ocean levels will rise and lend to an increase in warmer air which can hold more water vapor. This is a direct contributor to more severe weather phenomena, even for those who live far inland as recent flooding in Kentucky and demonstrated.

Events of this past week granted us Americans a rare opportunity to invest in hope of lowering the heat. Tuesday, August 16th, the President of the United States signed into law a massive bill passed by the Congress which was touted as the,’Biggest step forward on climate ever.’ It is however just that though, a STEP FORWARD. As ambitious as this legislation is in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 2005 levels by 2030, the political expedience of incremental change delivers no guarantee of any meaningful success in the short term. After all, we did not arrive at this brink of global disaster overnight and conversely, reversing the effects of excessive CO2 production will not be immediate. We have a sitting President and majority in the Congress that are dedicated to crafting and enacting policy based on scientific data that is tailored to address the problem. If the Congressional majority changes hands in either or both chambers thereby giving the climate science deniers and those guided by magical thinking control of all policy decisions regarding energy and climate, then all bets are off on the law just passed! No doubt that once they assume office, they will exert maximum effort to thwart, neutralize or outright overturn all measures intended to reduce greenhouse gasses. In the meantime, we who are suffering the adverse effects of a warming planet running amock by absent or tardy policy must acclimate to increasingly hotter summers, more powerful tornadoes and hurricanes, increased flooding, more intense wildfires and permanent changes in landscape.

As we the living in 2022 adapt to a changing environment, memories of the time of our blissful ignorance become elevated to a level of sacrosanct nostalgia. We must admit that it was much more fun doing the things we always did so innocently while not knowing or caring that our activities that involved burning mass quantities of gasoline and polluting the air with tons of exhaust emissions was potentially irreversibly contributing to the fouling of our Earthly home. That is especially true along this, the most Conservative stretch of Old Route 66, where cheap gas is still regarded as a birthright. Even today large engine/low mileage vehicles remain the norm and classic muscle cars from the height of the age of fossil fuels when this town was known as the “Oil Capital of the World” continue to be much admired and venerated. The numerous dedicated classic car owners have been known to spare little expense in their restoration, mechanical upkeep, maintenance of appearance and actual use at every opportunity. Those transportation machines will long remain a symbol of the American free spirit on the open road, consequences be damned.

Alas, all of us who directly benefited from all that aforementioned cheap gas, fast cars, luxury-laden gas guzzlers and longtime complacent attitudes about the petroleum-fueled lifestyle of our upbringing hold a share of the blame for getting our climate to the brink of consternation. Whereas there may be no excuse for our collective ignorance and excess in the process, there is even less excuse for those who profited exorbitantly from it and who have and still blatantly deny that the planet is getting warmer and has become a problem. Unlike the analogy of the choice to drink alcohol in excess as outlined above, this is a hangover punishment that effects EVERYONE! Perhaps it is for the greater good that at the end of the day it really does not matter. The planet will be here long after we are gone and if we end up making it uninhabitable for our species and most of the other living things sharing this place with us then no worries. There will likely be some other better adaptable organism or life form coming after us that can survive, thrive and tolerate climatic extremes that we cannot on this wonderful green sphere hurtling through the cosmos. The existential reality of the situation may be grim, but we can all look back from here and enjoy the memories of the grandeur of our now declining automobile culture and us with it. Maybe next time we can figure out a way to be less damaging to things that do matter. Yes, maybe next time.