At the risk of wishing my life away, I am eagerly awaiting the demise of 2022. I knew better than to expect much from it—my Mom died when she was 77, my age this moment. That I am still alive and sinnin' isn't any consolation! Consolation itself seems, well, taking your eye off the ball.
The ball being our Blue Planet.
The weather seems intent on reminding us what a drag humans are, but we seem equally intent on ignoring it. Though the reminders are pretty spectacular. Hurricane Ian did not constitute a wake-up call for Floridians. The Arctic cold snap that we dealt with over Christmas was more or less business as usual for winter in Iowa, but the following record-breaking Wednesday? 57 degrees broke the previous record of 54.
According to all the population counters, on or about November 15, 2022, the human race topped 8 billion. We know human activity from building bonfires (poor folks cooking food) to driving Mercedes' and flying private jets (fat cats) is at fault. Mother Nature's best efforts to curtail human proliferation quietly--Covid--seems not to be working either. Or even violently: hurricanes, cyclones and derechoes.
We've waited years for the U.N. to address the issue. I quit donating to environmental organizations trying to get them to speak out on human overpopulation. Perhaps promote a provision that all countries keep their populations relative to their land/ability to accommodate people. Of course, islands such as Ireland, Haiti, will object, but it's in their own best interest. The social disorganization--kidnapping, gangs of desperate young men terrorizing the Haitian countryside, etc. is exactly what results. Duh. A medical-professional-friend went there once to help, and never went again.
The liberal set here and on the other side of the Atlantic has themselves convinced that we can continue biz-as-usual human proliferation if we keep the temp below 1.5 C degrees of increase. Lying to ourselves may be the human race's best act. They have to know it's a long shot and even achieved, it will not work as long as population growth continues unabated. So happy New Year's Blues!