To look upon his work is to look into the soul of a man with a deep and abiding affinity for the world of nature, a man who took great pains to interpret and depict that world through some very intricate photographic and printing techniques that conveyed both the majesty of nature and the awe that it inspired in him.
If you are unfamiliar with his work, I strongly encourage you to explore it.
It therefore pains me deeply to learn that Yosemite is now under threat. Although at this stage of my life I have learned to accept some bitter truths, this is one I would fain turn away from, if I could.
The report begins at the 4:40 mark:
Sad and unnecessary, Lorne. Our time is out of joint. And our future is bleak.
ReplyDeleteI have lost hope for any kind of reasonable outcome for this world, Owen.
DeleteWe must live with the fact that climate change is reformatting our planet. We know, to a credible degree of certainty, the causation and the short- and mid-range outlook. From that we can glean a range of possible options for either averting or, failing that, adapting to these changes. Individuals and the private sector have a role to play but this is primarily a governmental function. Yet if you look at our governments, including Canada's, you see leaders who act as though we're still in the 80s.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's tragic to see Yosemite in peril. It's tragic to see communities swept by flash floods. It's tragic to see coastal zones swept by storm surge and clear sky flooding. It's all very tragic, very horrible. It is our new normal. Ten years from now we can expect to have a worse, more challenging normal.
The important issue is what do we intend to do about it? We're still fighting these worsening and spreading wildfires with the same levels of personnel and equipment that were appropriate to the past. That video shows a twin engine aircraft, an ex-navy Grumman Tracker, used as a water bomber. It doesn't throw a lot of water and with its tricycle landing gear can only operate from paved runways. My point is that we haven't geared the response to these changing conditions. This "everyday low taxes" mentality doesn't lend itself to the costs associated with adaptation.
It may be that we have to triage nature - deciding what can/must be saved and what we must simply abandon. Part of that decision will rest on how much cost we're prepared to bear. I wish I could be more hopeful about our response but I've seen nothing to inspire optimism.
A book I am reading right now, Extreme Cities, makes it clear that little is being done to avert the disaster that will overtake us far faster than the conservative estimates of sea level rise given by the IPCC would have us believe; I know you are well-aware of this, Mound. Coupled with the droughts, wildfires and flash floods, it seems to me that any measures that might be taken will be inadequate, due to government inertia, people's reluctance to sacrifice even the smallest of things, and the intricate interplay that exists in nature. Make even one small change, and we really cannot know what it will ultimately bring about.
DeleteThat is not to say I believe we should just lie down and wait for disaster; rather, we have a moral imperative to do what we can for future generations, who will face far, far worse than what confronts us in our remaining years.
I get most of my news and opinions from blogs.
ReplyDeleteThere are some excellent blogs out there with detailed analysis, lazer focus, and link heavy. They arn't written to please an editor, please a Corporation or refrain from goring sacred oxen.
Witness the great moral Media innerstruggle of the day, how to eupvhamise the Mago Hued Shitgibbons lies, with out actually calling them lies.
Steve Gillard, ( may he rest in peace), never had that problem.
They also don't go haring after the RWNJ Fauxrage de jour, but instead, can stay focused on issues like the nazi ICE's bokoharam-ing of the babies and girls.
If one person say's it's raining, and the other person says it's sunny, the Press's job is to look out the window and report. They don't do much of that anymore.
Owen had a blog post today on the crisis facing contemporary journalism, Jay.The warnings contained therein are well-worth heeding.
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