I am a survivor of environmental human warfare

Why can’t we deal with the environmental destruction we are causing to the planet? I'm beginning to think we are hardwired to find humor and belittle major life and death events in order to stay sane.

While we have the ability to grasp major threats to our own body and mind, we laugh at funerals. We act like insane people towards the obvious unsustainable and exponential paths to destruction – like smokers and addicts who know they are killing themselves but live with the knowledge – hey, we all gotta go sometime…

If we’re a unique species aware of our own death and bad choices along the way that hasten this inevitability, then this is magnified to an almost insane level by our awareness that our collective impact on a global scale threatens not just our species but thousands or millions more with extinction – it’s like entering a world war knowing that by the time its over, countless millions will be dead and cities and infrastructure ruined…all for the cost of freedom and dignity?

The Earth will recover and become green and healthy again, unless we pulverize her to death with all the nukes we have. The Earth has lots of time, we don’t. When our backs are against the wall of change and our existence is threatened, like it was in the second world war with the Nazi madmen of Hitler and his henchmen, we will dig deep and find a way to survive.

We have already started this most exciting and profound journey. I may live long enough to see the world turn the corner, but I won’t see the stabilization and eventual harmony that is still possible. Tipping points are a scary reality because they are only really evident in hindsight. This experiment of humanity and the massive short term change and impact we have inflicted on Earth may be too late to change but only if we give up on hope. Somehow we will muddle through all the shit we have created and inflicted on Earth and her ecosystems and find a way to survive, mentally and physically.

I have seen enough of the big picture to seriously disappoint and depress myself, I must now move away, take a rest and a back seat to the change that is now needed by young and fertile creative minds and bodies that can do the heavy lifting. All I can do is live frugally, enjoy what time I have left, take a rest from this heavy reality I have witnessed firsthand through my environmental work.

Like a wartime reporter, I don’t know how prominent environmentalists can endure a lifetime of working in the environmental trenches and remain positive. I will try to heal myself and learn to love what nature I am fortunate to have in my back yard, like I have done most of my life. I am lucky, I am wise to understand and act on this, and I guess I am a real deal environmentalist because I fully live it.

I have made some important transitions over the last few years of my life as I realize its not too late for me to embrace the change and optimism that I need to live and feel for others. Maybe with time, I will find my voice and courage, and find a way to communicate what I have learned and taken to heart from my own experience. I have been fortunate to have chosen this career, to have fallen into this lifestyle that has provided me a front seat on this monumental change confronting Earth and humanity. 

I guess I'm lucky that I have retained an open mind and gratefulness for the blessings I have been given. I may have reasons to be bitter and disappointed that my career in the trenches of environmental warfare never really went anywhere, that I never made much money or even made much difference in my ideals, but somehow I have retained a sense of hope and optimism for our shared future.Hard to talk about and even harder to explain when no one seems to care to listen, but I'll keep trying. In the meantime, I'll take canoe and let myself go.

When being a little frank is more than embarrassing!

(This is more methane laced cow dung being spouted by our sad excuse of a PM. How dare this poor excuse for a leader speak for all world leaders when he is clearly wrong? We are a little more frank about that? Does frank mean belligerent or embarrassed to admit our ignorance? Now that the US and Australia is finally coming around to tackle climate change (in the face of overwhelming evidence for a clear and present danger), Harper is feeling increasingly marginalized for his lone strategy of doing less than nothing. Harper knows that strategically Canada is a northern country and may 100 years from now, largely benefit from climate change just as the North West passage melts and opens up new transportation routes and resources (oil and gas mainly) to exploit. By then, there won't be much of a global economy left to tackle any environmental issue that threatens our collective security. But what about the mountains of cash that Harper has thrown away on the F-35 fighter jet and so many other pet projects that have gone bust? The economy is not there for itself, it is created to allow a country to function as the people see fit. Its getting to the point that our long term allies like Australia, the US, and EU will start to avoid our government officials as the rhetoric is simply false and more than a little embarrassing, or should I say frank?)

Ottawa Citizen article: June 10/14:

Harper says there’s not a country in the world that would take action on climate change at the expense of its own economy — no matter what it might say.
Canada wants to deal with climate change without crippling the economy, he said Monday at a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
“And, frankly, every single country in the world, this is their position,” Harper said.
“No country is going to undertake actions on climate change, no matter what they say … that is going to deliberately destroy jobs and growth in their country.
“We are just a little more frank about that, but that is the approach that every country is seeking.”
Abbott, who is in Ottawa on an official visit, said every country should do what it thinks is best to deal with climate change.
“We think that climate change is a significant problem. It’s not the only or even the most important that the world faces, but it is a significant problem,” he said.
“It’s important that every country should take the action that it thinks is best to reduce emissions, because we should rest lightly on the planet.”
Abbott added he is “encouraged” by regulations introduced in the United States last week to chop carbon emissions from U.S. power plants by 30 per cent by 2030.
Harper says Canada has actually done more to lower carbon emissions in its electricity sector than the U.S.
“The measures outlined by President Obama, as important as they are, do not go nearly as far in the electricity sector as the actions Canada has already taken ahead of the United States in that particular sector,” he said.
American approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, designed to move Alberta crude to the Gulf Coast, has been stalled in the U.S. while the Obama administration drops hints that Canada must do