Ask not to be born today.

You will turn 23 just when the planet reaches 6 degC

If we are to believe Europe’s premier climate change service, C3S, then our environment is heating at an accelerating pace, 0.214 degC per year, so 1 degC hotter every 5 yrs., if this 18 month long trend continues as it is. C3S published an article on June 5, 2024, entitled “Hottest May on record spurs call for climate action”, which contains the accurate recording of a 0.75 degC global average temp increase over the past 3.5 yrs. over the 1991-2020 baseline. It doesn’t take a mathematician to divide 3.5 into 0.75 and come up with 0.214. But, wait a damned minute here, that’s one whole degC every 5 years, if it continues on this course, right? Check me to see if I’m right. Because if I am correct, and our current temp over the 1850-1900 baseline is 1.63 degC, then we may very well see 2 degC by 2027, in 2 1/2 yrs., and 3 degC in 2032, in 8 yrs, and another 1 degC increase worldwide every 5 yrs. thereafter, right?

If we don’t find a way and the will to dramatically decrease our dependence on fossil fuel burning, then we may expect to see 6 degC worldwide by 2047. So, any child unfortunate enough to be born today may get to celebrate (?) his/her 23rd BD in a world 6 degC hotter than today. He/she may not be as pleased as you were when the little tyke tumbled into your arms. In fact, he/she may rue the day you conceived him/her and hate you for it. Of course, the rising temps may have already taken your life, so you’ll miss all the fun (?).

I realize this is scary, painful information and your first impulse may be to shoot yourself, or at least find some escape, like any and all of American “entertainment” culture, or just get plastered/higher than a kite. However, if you somehow find the courage to face what’s really happening to our collapsing climate, you may, also, come to realize that you and I are the cause of our children’s catastrophic futures among an extinction level climate collapse. Were we just to busy playing video games, or checking our Bitcoin balances, or counting our toys, to actually pay attention to the grave warning of an oncoming disaster for future generations? Were we really that self-absorbed and oblivious?

Or did we just not really give a damn about our children, or the decimated burning cinder of a planet we are leaving them? Sadly, my experience has forced me to conclude the latter to be the real cause. We just allowed the massive fossil fuel propaganda machine/MSM/”entertainment” industry/military industrial complex/ deep state/political distractions/wars/ famines/migrations/ loss of faith in any thing and anyone beyond our own myopic self-interests, to willfully blind us to the truth. So, who’s to blame now?