By Daniel de la Calle
Two weeks ago Professor Roger Bradbury (Australian National University) signed a New York Times op-ed piece in which the real situation and improbably future of coral reefs was for once spelled with all its letters, not softened by gentle words and nonexistent bright sides.
As a specie we might feel change and solutions can only come through hope. We have become slaves of this idea, unable to accept points of no return or definitive endings anywhere. Our collective imaginary is based on such a notion, Hollywood knew soon how to make a profitable industry of it and churches and faiths will stay amongst us until the end; it is who we are. Like the fascination with the dodo, the magic for us is not in the giant bird walking once around a distant island, what we simply cannot wrap our heads around is that it is truly and definitively extinct, that we ate the last one. This impossibility of the impossible is what we hold on to and swear by, so the reason for our perseverance and success will likely be the detonator of our fall.
I have often wondered if we might just be genetically programmed to react rather than to prevent. The problem with Ocean Acidification and endless list of environmental threats above our heads today is that we do not have the luxury of a second chance in which to apply experience to undo the wrong. That clear unequivocal proof so many demand, the 125 degree summer month, will only come the day after “too late”, which in some cases probably took place some time ago.
Bill Mckibben’s long, absolutely brilliant, article in this month’s Rolling Stone is as true and devastating to read. It would be unfair to quote a small paragraph here or there: if you have not done it yet, please read here about Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math.
Elizabeth Kolbert also wrote a comment just now in The New Yorker about corn pollination and high temperatures that certainly goes well with this depressing summer post. Take a minute to read The Big Heat HERE.
Finally, if I have not bummed you completely out yet please consider watching this video from photographer Chris Jordan’s doc-in-progress Midway:
“On one of the remotest islands on our planet, tens of thousands of baby albatrosses lie dead on the ground, their bodies filled with plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch…”
MIDWAY : trailer : a film by Chris Jordan from Midway on Vimeo.
