written 19 Dec 2021
published 26 Dec 2021
As we come to the end of the year, it is traditional to consider what we would like to change in the new year.
I would like to see the US get serious about the climate crisis. Despite the record-breaking weather extremes of the past year, adversely impacting every part of our country, there are people who still doubt this is real, or that there is anything humans can do about it. People who know better, but still think they can make more money from "business as usual", fund the media, sowing doubt, leading the faithful to their own doom. I wonder how bad it has to get before folks question their blind devotion to the sources of information that care so little for their fate. When that awareness comes, will it be too late?
Getting serious requires reducing atmospheric carbon emissions by 50% in the next 96 months, necessitating doubling or tripling renewable production in that time period. Getting serious would be adequately funding the transition away from fossil fuels, so that everyone benefits from the change, not just the wealthy. Getting serious is recognizing that we could all go extinct in a few decades, no matter who you voted for.
I would like to see the US come together about Covid. Despite having free, effective vaccines, only 72% of the country is fully vaccinated, and only 31% have had a booster. With colder weather, and increased holiday gatherings, the average US daily case load and daily death rate are 50% greater than three weeks ago. This is beginning to stress hospitals in some areas, and omicron, the more contagious variant, has yet to sweep through.
But these averages hide disturbing details. Counties that voted more heavily for Trump have lower vaccination rates, and three times higher per capita death rates, indicating that people are choosing not to deal with the pandemic. We even see this locally with organized unmasked groups performing political drama in local businesses, supposedly asserting their individual freedoms, while treating their neighbors badly by ignoring the collective health issue. Such arrogant refusal to recognize their responsibility to the society that supports them bodes poorly for successfully avoiding climate extinction.
I would like to see America recommit to our democratic ideals. Most of the Republican leadership has embraced cult authoritarianism, completely abandoning any pretense of program, integrity, honesty, or cooperation. I hope Republican voters realize their leaders are only working for the billionaire class, not for the rank and file, and choose to no longer vote for them.
I would like to see our society shift away from prioritizing money over real values, such as kindness, charity, compassion, beauty, happiness, peace of mind, art, and music, to name a few. Everything is focused on lowest, short term costs and increasing growth, which are foolish and unsustainable on a finite living planet, creating a society which is angry, obese, anxious, ill, and unhappy. Even our democracy is threatened by those that want to keep the system of exclusive gain running a few months longer, while the people and the planet are crying for attention and change. Globally, eight white men own as much as the poorest 3.6 billion people. The Navajo's say of such greed, "they act like they have no relatives".
I would like to see humanity respect the value and rights of other living beings and biological systems. Fifty years ago, humans were consuming 100% of the annual productivity of the Earth, and that over-consumption is currently 170%. This is completely unsustainable, destined to crash at any time.
These all seem like unlikely changes, but I believe most people really want a world that is peaceful, healthy, and fair. I have no idea how we get from here to there, but holding that as an intention is a start. Recognizing the unsustainable, fundamental dysfunction of our current economic model is a start. Acknowledging that all people and beings deserve respect and consideration is a start.
I am not a religious person, repelled by the history of hypocrisy, pain, and killing resulting from such rigid ideas. But I feel the fundamental connection of reality. Until we all begin to live from that unity perspective, our species is on borrowed time, with little future. My New Year's resolution is to live life as if we are all sacred.
