Bright Hopes for 2021

By FRANK LINGO

Like any doddering Boomer, I still love sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. OK, I don’t participate in them as much anymore, (It’s almost 40 years since I got stoned) but I understand the desire to have a good time no matter how bleak the situation.

Fast-forward to a futuristic-sounding 2021. As our country recovers from Trump’s tyranny, his damage to America is dwarfed by the rapacious pillaging we’ve inflicted on the Earth in the couple centuries of the industrial revolution. How do we tackle the tremendous task of transforming our relationship with the planet from extractive to renewable?

Joyfully, I submit. If we pull together with our fellow Earthlings, we get human harmony and results that renew our resources.

People are ahead of politicians on environmental issues. Way ahead. That’s because politicians have prostituted themselves to oil, chemical and mining corporations.

Young adults around the world are concerned about the environment in far greater numbers than their predecessors. That means they’ll be easy to convert to carbon-neutral lifestyles, while still enjoying their youth. Even among older folks, support for environmental action has increased markedly.

But it’s just a small percentage of American voters whose top issue is our environment.

That has to change. We must realize and act like environment is our top priority. Part of the challenge is better messaging to the many people who only have a vague sense of the crisis facing the world.

Now the Democrats are in control of Congress and the presidency. We Dems have a history of mediocre messaging, so it’s incumbent on us to present environmental issues lucidly to the voters — if we want to remain incumbents.

Words matter in the environmental movement. The phrase ‘global warming’ might sound OK for people who don’t like winter, and its replacement, ‘climate change,’ seems innocuous. Neither phrase expresses urgency.

“Climate chaos” is my suggestion. Chaos is worse than warming, and it’s more troublesome than a normal process like change.

Beyond message phrasing, we need deep education for the masses about what is happening to the planet and how it affects the human species swarming its surface.

Will we face the facts? Can we heat without coal and drive without oil? Can we eat without meat? Can we feed the millions suffering from chronic hunger? Can we stop fighting with each other long enough to protect the planet for our children?

Yes, we can, like Obama said. Yes, we can can, sang the Pointer Sisters.

There are plastic alternatives already in production. One is called Sonali, invented by a Bangladesh scientist from the jute plant. It’s biodegradable, decomposing within six months into harmless organic matter.

That’s just one example of how we can work our way thru our challenges if we have the will to do so.

After World War II we re-built the rubble that Germany and much of Western Europe lay buried in. The Marshall Plan was an astounding transformation that turned starving and destitute countries into thriving industrial nations.

Let’s get some of that confidence back again. Let’s show we have the stuff it takes to make the world safe for human habitation. And while we’re at it, why don’t we preserve and revive the flora and fauna we’ve been busy destroying.

To paraphrase the worst wastrel in the world, “Make The Earth Great Again.”

Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote”. See his new website Greenbeat.world. Email: lingofrank@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, February 1, 2021

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