Saturday 3 June 2017

Climate change?

My dear American friends I wonder about the sanity of your President.  His decision to pull out of the Paris Accord makes no sense to me.
It isn't a matter of whether you believe in climate change or not but it is a matter of economic sense to stay in. It makes sense simply because, if you don't, everyone else who stays in is going to shun you. You will also be shunned by those people who are victims of cyclones, hurricanes, floods, droughts, and any other event that can be laid at the door of "climate change".
Now I admit I have some doubts about some of the claims made - but even scientists, when they are being honest, say they don't know either. Is that ice-sheet, Larsen C, which is threatening to break off the result of climate change or something which would occur in the natural scheme of things? I just don't know.
What I do know is that we have just one tiny little planet in the vast universe to care for and we are not doing a particularly good or careful job of it. We have wasted vast resources and we are wasting still more. We have polluted it with all sorts of rubbish. We haven't cared for the life on it. As individuals we always seem to think that we come first and everything else comes after that even while we go out and protest about climate change.
It was chilly yesterday, distinctly chilly. It was officially the second day of winter so I was not surprised. I wore wool top instead of a cotton one for the first time and, because my paws were cold, I wore my red wool mittens as well. I like warm paws to have better control of the tricycle - to avoid idiots who reverse at speed without looking for the most part. 
I had to go to the post office to pick up a registered item. (We had been out when the postman called.) As I was locking the trike up someone said to me,
       "Don't you wish you had a car on days like this?"
No, not really. It would of course be nice to "just be able to hop in the car" but I wouldn't get any exercise that way. I would be adding to the consumption of fossil fuel. (Yes, those solar panels are made with fossil fuels.) It wasn't raining. If it had been raining I would have been dressed for it. It wouldn't be pleasant but it would be bearable. 
Of course there are times when it would be nice not to have to spend thirty minutes pedalling when a car would get me there in five. It would be nice to be able to go to all the places I can't reach by tricycle and train. Of course there are times when I accept a ride in a car belonging to someone else - but I try to remain conscious of the fact that cars are expensive and even more expensive to run. 
Planet Earth is expensive to run too. Reducing the cost of running it seems sensible.
But it means that people like the President of the United States of America would need to do more pedalling and I am not sure they really want to do that.

2 comments:

Momkatz said...

Remember, Cat, we are talking about the only G-7 participant who had to take a golf cart to transverse 70 yards to the scenic overlook. The rest of the participants managed to walk.

Many Americans are appalled, disgusted, terrified, overwhelmed, heartbroken (insert whatever word comes to mind here) at the directions DT is taking our country.

It is beyond embarrassing to be in the company of Syria and Nicaragua.

USA Sister Cat who has no more words

jeanfromcornwall said...

Any housewife worth her salt would be able to tell him that it is wise to be thrifty. Applies in the big things as well as the small. Wife, woman, female of the species - what do we know?