Climate Change and the Election

If there is a single issue that a rational person could choose to make a decision on voting for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump I would argue that it is climate change.  Trump has labeled theories of climate change as ‘bullshit’ and ‘a hoax’.  He has vowed to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement, to rescind the Climate Action Plan, to save the coal industry and to eviscerate the EPA.

Climate is a complex phenomenon.  A complete understanding of its trends and future will elude us for the foreseeable future.  But are we really willing to take the chance that climate change is not real?  Every major scientific organization in the U.S. has endorsed the theory of climate change and the influence of human factors on it.  Here are just a few of them:

• ·         National Academy of Sciences - "The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify taking steps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”
• ·         American Association for the Advancement of Science - "The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society."
• ·         American Chemical Society - "Comprehensive scientific assessments of our current and potential future climates clearly indicate that climate change is real, largely attributable to emissions from human activities, and potentially a very serious problem."
• ·         American Geophysical Union - "Human‐induced climate change requires urgent action. Humanity is the major influence on the global climate change observed over the past 50 years. Rapid societal responses can significantly lessen negative outcomes."
• ·         American Medical Association - "Our AMA ... supports the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fourth assessment report and concurs with the scientific consensus that the Earth is undergoing adverse global climate change and that anthropogenic contributions are significant." 
• ·         American Meteorological Society - "It is clear from extensive scientific evidence that the dominant cause of the rapid change in climate of the past half century is human-induced increases in the amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), chlorofluorocarbons, methane, and nitrous oxide."

Climate science skeptics will argue that satellite data does not support the warming trend that earth scientists record very clearly (Ted Cruz has promoted this specific critique).  Never mind the fact that there is ample evidence that satellite data is seriously flawed. They will also say that climate change is not ‘settled science’.  In this modern age of social media where every opinion and every set of ‘facts’ is propagated endlessly the ‘truth’ can be hard to discern.   However, it takes a very stubborn skepticism to argue against ALL of the major scientific communities.

And even if one is skeptical, can it possibly be a prudent position to completely reject the risk of climate change and its possible consequences?  Only a fool would be adamantly opposed to careful consideration of this issue – to roll the dice and simply hope that climate change isn’t true or that its impact won’t be catastrophic.

It is somewhat understandable that conservatives fear the potential economic impacts of large scale emission control programs.  No one wants our fragile world economy to be unnecessarily hampered by new regulations or imposed restrictions on energy and commerce.  But what about the economic impact of climate change itself?  If recent events are any indication of what we are in store for in the future, then the costs of wildfires, droughts, floods, storms, famine and a myriad of other potential consequences of climate change – not to mention the political fallout of refugees and global conflict -  will make the control of emissions look like the best economic bargain in history.

Delaying a serious and considered handling of the climate change issue for 4 or 8 more years is perhaps the single biggest blunder our nation could make.  The U.S. needs to demonstrate global leadership on this issue and is perhaps the only nation qualified to do so.  It is clear that this will not happen with Trump.  This is reason enough to completely reject his candidacy.

The Insidious Nature of Boredom

The sentence ‘I am bored’ is probably one of the most frequently used sentences in the English language.  Children learn it early in life and recite it endlessly during long summer vacations or family car rides or moments of exasperation with various tasks or chores.

In its youthful form, boredom is generally a temporary state, brought on by either the lack of obvious play scenarios or by forced participation in an activity that holds no interest.  A child may be bored one second and merrily engaged the next in some new activity.  The mercurial nature of the child generally vanquishes boredom pretty easily.  Childlike curiosity and energy win the day, because there is almost always something new to discover.  But from adolescence on, boredom can be a more complex phenomenon that can easily skirt the edges of lassitude and ultimately plunge one into the abyss of depression.

Of course adult boredom can be as banal as childlike boredom – the boredom of a long meeting, the boredom of a vapid conversation, the boredom of a book that has lost its appeal or a formulaic movie.

But in many cases, to be bored as an adult is no longer the state of having nothing to do or perceiving a single, specific activity as boring, but rather finding no compelling reason to do anything! This sinister species of boredom – a writer’s block of the soul - seems almost nonsensical at first glance.  Why would human beings be so easily bored in a world that has endless possibilities of activity, both intellectual and physical?  A boredom of this nature would seem almost to indicate a very flawed character, a dearth of imagination or curiosity.  Yet, it is endemic in modern civilization and affects legions of otherwise industrious and energetic souls who find themselves inexplicably stricken by a melancholy boredom from time to time.

Why does the infection of a bored lethargy lurk so close to the human psyche, and how does one find an antidote?  Why do some people seem endlessly energetic and buoyant while others grapple constantly with a debilitating ennui?

In my life I seem to vacillate between extremes.  In one moment I am ecstatically imbued with almost superhuman energy and passion, engaged in multiple activities and joyfully contemplating each new endeavor.  Each activity seems to hold endless fascination for me and I almost vibrate with a mad desire to experience everything and master as much as humanly possible.  I am bewitched by the endless possibilities of engagement and reluctant to leave my tasks even to eat or sleep.

But those same passions can be cast aside in paralyzing indifference when I find myself in the clutches of a bored state of mind. The powerful elixir of playing guitar or writing songs that provides me such exquisite pleasure on one evening can seem dull and meaningless to me the next.  I can catalog through the bountiful list of hobbies and interests that are normally a bottomless treasure trove and find not a single item that beckons to me.  It all seems so purposeless.

Sometimes in this state of listlessness I can trick myself out of the ensuing despondency by starting an activity with little or no hope for pleasure.  If I am fortunate, I find myself slowly drawn into its inveterate magic.  Often this will break the spell of boredom and return me to my happy, energized self.

But other times the spell is not to be broken, and I lurch from activity to activity with heavy heart and find nothing to awaken the child within.  In these moments I begin to despair that I have lost the thread of jubilant exertion.  Perhaps I am peering into the chasm of depression.

When I was in college I took a class on the writings of Jean Paul Sartre.  His book, La Nausee, made a strong impression on me.  The protagonist, if he can be regarded as such, is overwhelmed by a ‘nausea’, an awareness of the absurdity and meaninglessness of existence – a glimpse into ‘nothingness’.  But somehow he is able to comprehend and accept pure existence and find the courage to overcome his nausea and live ‘authentically’.  It was somewhat unclear to me whether living ‘authentically’ is supposed to give our lives meaning in spite of the absurdity of existence.

When I am experiencing a time of ‘boredom’, I think about existentialism because the strongest quality of my boredom is a sense of futility, of meaninglessness.  I perceive every possible activity as repetitious and pointless.  As a person who has not embraced atheism but remains rather ever-optimistic that there is indeed a higher order or divine state of being, I want to reject and overcome this flirtation with nihilism.  But my best efforts to do so are not always immediately successful.  Fortunately, the passage of time eventually clears the miasma of my ennui and I can once again throw myself into an activity, albeit without ever solving the puzzle of why such attacks occur.

Here’s hoping that my more ebullient nature and native curiosity are able to continue to triumph over the insidious threat of boredom.  I will certainly do everything I can to ensure that they do!