Thursday, May 3, 2018

Climate Justice



Some people, say those who live in Aberystwyth, shake their fists at the weather and cry out for justice, climate justice. It's not fair that the climate should attack them on a daily basis with unending rain while a privileged elite live under the sunny skies of Texas. 




Fair? Hardly and if you doubt me, try taking a summer vacation in Borth without an umbrella and a fleece. But seriously, climate justice is about more than sharing the Texan sun with our weather oppressed Welsh friends, it's about "working at the intersections of environmental degradation and the racial, social, and economic inequities it perpetuates."




You see, anthropocentric global warming creates a greenhouse effect in the earth's atmosphere, causing the climate to change because of CO2 emissions. This makes the weather hot, which melts the ice caps and causes drought and catastrophic flooding. And it makes the weather cold, because the sun's heat is blocked by carbon dioxide, bringing on a new ice age. Polar bears are tragically driven schizophrenic by this injustice.




Poor people of color are also harmed by the inequity, as their huts flood and then become frozen blocks of ice. On the other hand, privileged whites, living in mining compounds on the high ground of the Mogollon Rim in Arizona, for example, are spared. 

Such is the perpetuation of economic, social and racial injustice, brought on by the Weather. You can take a course on it at the fabled school of higher learning we call "Cornell."




All this passed through my mind as I drove through the asset stripped streets of this rural Texan haven, while the rain crashed down with southern fury and wildfires raged through the pines of Arizona. What had gone wrong, had we somehow failed to pay our Climate Tax?

Smart people are investing in boats, skis and fireproof bunkers.

Your Pal,

LSP

19 comments:

LL said...

People living in bunkers in the high country are "barely" spared.

LSP said...

Really glad everything's OK -- prayed the WWM would be spared.

LL said...

Prayers answered!!

Fire is no joke. Then again, neither are earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos, tornadoes, floods - dinosaurs, space aliens, illegal space aliens, etc. They can all take you out at the ankles just about the time you're trying to figure out what happened.

Fredd said...

I freeze my buttocks off 7 months out of the year near Chicago, a little justice here would be in order.

All you warm weather people need to send checks, as large as you can make them, to me for reparations.

Jim said...

Good thing I didn't read this the other night or I wouldn't been able to hear it over that tornado warning siren that just went on and on.

LSP said...

The fire pics looked pretty scary, LL. We're fighting against rain here and it caught me by surprise this morning as I walked to the pick 'n steal for coffee.

Will the injustice never end?

LSP said...

Fredd, anything less would perpetuate racial, economic and social inequity.

It rained here this morning. I too demand justice.

LSP said...

Had a couple of code reds here too, Jim. But the tornadoes never materialized.

Not fair.

LindaG said...

Ditto here, too.

LindaG said...

Great post, Parson.

Wondering what global warming- oops, climate change - will be like after the magnetic poles complete their switch...

You all be safe and have a blessed weekend, Parson.

Infidel de Manahatta said...

No none needs weather. It's time we banned assault weather.

gL said...

Here in the middle-west wild things happen in springtime. One day it’s raining and cold (or snowing) the next day goes windy and the next brings temps like it was mid July, no lie, up there around 80. Fip this new found weather trend around and you have our weather in fall. We didn’t have it as recently as my youth and some of us call it climate change, a real mess that we’ve made. I swear, maybe ppl will stand up to accountability once we begin to get blizzards in June, which we may. In the mean time, when he sees snow, our mendacious leader likes to guffaw, troll-like, and sarcastically blame it on “Chai-nah.” That’s good for the economy I suppose, but in the meantime most ppl, (like yourself) wander around joking and dismissive, little realizing that all they’re dismissing is the guilt of their complacency. Honestly, I get it when ppl in our executive office wave it all away as false, because they are, after all, in the pockets of Big Business. Little guys like you however, come off as misguided lackeys, guilty of the kind of complacency that can only be born of an inability to face the anxieties of the day, and a mocking ability to do so with ease. You and I both know it’s about much more that a silly carbon tax, but hey, keep lookin the other way brotha. Bad vibes, bad attitude, badly played.

Jules said...

I'm currently basking, YES, BASKING, in the sun as England hits a record high May Bank Holiday weekend.
I'm currently basking, YES, BASKING, in the sun as England hits a record high May Bank Holiday weekend.
I mention this twice as it's miraculous.
You may keep the rain.

Fredd said...

Jules: if we're not basking in ice here near Chicago, we bask in corruption. Or we bask in murders. We Chicago-types take our basking very seriously.

LSP said...

Thanks, Linda, and it's curious. I've been pondering the upcoming pole flip too.

Be safe.

LSP said...

Military grade weather has absolutely no place in civilian hands, Infidel.

It's settled science.

LSP said...

I hope you've paid your weather tax and recycled all those old New Yorkers, GL.

LSP said...

Juliette, a good English spring day is a beautiful thing. I know this.

So is RAIN IN TEXAS.

I say again.

So is RAIN IN TEXAS.

Does that sound like code? It is, code for awesome.

LSP said...

Chicago, the basking city. Good point, Fredd.