Test Quote

Burning Down the House "You were vaccinated with a phonograph needle!" my father used to tease me. It was his way of saying I talk too much. My friends quickly grew weary of my climate paranoia. Heather found my obsession with the Anthropocene (Is that the right word?) to be tiresome. My older brother, a LimbaughBeckFoxfan(atic), mastered the "global warming is a hoax" style of pushback, an irritating way of telling telling me to shut up. So I read, watch closely, listen carefully and hold my tongue. Resistance has silenced both me and the press.

Human impact on the EARTHs environment continues to accelerate at an exponential rate. Isolated and extreme weather events, witnessed over 20 years, begin to be recognized as climate change. Disappearing glaciers, disappearing Arctic ice, failing Cod, Tuna, Shark and Salmon populations, ocean dead zones, warming ocean temps, continued destruction of rain forests, spreading deserts, extreme droughts, unprecedented heat waves, mild winters, rising oceans, bees, bats, frogs, snakes.....the EARTH will not be silenced so easily.

And I find that people are beginning to approach me. They read a book or a story in the newspaper and need to talk. A recent story in the NYTimes about sea-level rise and Heather is talking about selling the house before it is too late. It is only a matter of 10, 20 years at most, before the probability of 3 foot of sea-level rise in the next hundred years is confirmed. In 30 years a foot of sea-level rise will top the evening news as low lying areas are taken by the sea. Banks will no longer write mortgages for homes near sea-level.

At the same time, the forces of darkness that would deliver all power back into the hands of the most powerful may be in control of our government. They promise both house and senate hearings on climate scientist. They will cut funding for climate science, terminate programs that inform the public, delay space craft essential to gathering climate data and monitoring deteriorating weather.
Is it ironic? As extreme weather is recognized as climate change, as people are beginning to understand the story, the forces of darkness will call attention to the scientists and the science. The forces of denial win the day and the EARTH will not be silent.