The Western United States of America has faced a long drought that is expected to continue and possible worsen this summer. The lack of consistent moisture has led to an increase in fires. The burning of forests that are well below the moisture level required to sustain a healthy ecosystem.
Why are we facing this devestation?  Mostly due to climate change? Or La Nina?

Well, both.

The forests of the Western United States hold the World’s largest trees. The Giant Redwood Sequoia (which only a few groves of trees remain), and they are burning quickly. Many of the trees have undergone arborist work lately to remove the hazardous lower branches (that can easily be as large as many other smaller trees) that randomly snap and fall from great heights due to unprecedented lack of moisture.

The Western United States Grasslands are also suffering the same drought. The sever lack of rainfall has upended much of the entire regions ecosystem and could have long-lasting effects that create a “Dustbowl” out of the lush western mountain ranges. These mountain ranges typically catch weather and create a predictable rainfall/snowfall, but the moisture from La Nina was not consistent with prior events. We saw about 30% of the moisture from this last La Nina event that we had hoped for, and this is mainly due to the changing global climate.

Many of the readers of this article, published in Ntoch, for the Ntoch community, will agree that this new weather scenario spells devastation and famine. Yes it is a Global Threat, and we really have very little control over how the Earth retaliates for the soaring CO2 and Methane. The perpetual enlarging carbon footprint and the complete lack of intervention.  The Earth will survive the climate shift, but most of life on the planet will not. Eventually, this spiral will fuel itself and the speed of the crashing climate will accelerate, until we are no longer here to witness the complete evaporation of our life sustaining atmosphere.

Sure there are many billionaires that have pledged great sums of funds to battle the forthcoming devastation.  But that reminds me of some good intentioned person trying to defeat the Roman Army with a paperclip.  The odds are slim to none, and the system is already starting to exaggerate the already bad scenario.

Much of the real information that could have created a defensive stance and initiated some retaliation to the Global Warming Crisis was bad information, intentionally deceiving the public for reasons of greed or power. The irony is that money will become worthless after we all perish on a burning ball of sand. Somehow the great oil barrons and car manufactures are in complete denial as Australia just suffered the worst wildfire season ever, and the Western United States was enveloped in smoke for months from multiple fires due to increasingly dry conditions.

The Global Warming Crisis is real. The atmosphere of our planet now has more CO2 that it has had in over 3.5 million years and growing. The best way to fight the rising CO2 levels is to stop burning fossil fuel. It makes me think of the hopelessly addicted  smoker, who knows how bad it is to smoke, but continues to ignore all the health signs to eventually perish at the hands of their addiction. Yes, modern humans are addicted to fossil fuels. Yes, this addiction is deadly. Yes, it has the potential to effect everyone around those who are addicted. Yet, there is no real immediate action being taken due to the fear of the economic recourse.

To put things very bluntly. Money is going to be worthless without a planet. The fattest bank accounts will become meaningless if we do not intervene on behalf of our environment. In order for money to have value, it must be in demand or used as legal tender. After humans have gone extinct there will be no more money. Human extinction is inevitable at our current trajectory. Can we expect the fully fossil-fuel addicted bus driver to swerve to miss the oncoming catastrophe?  I expect the bus driver to continue on their merry way, all the way to extinction. Why would we expect anything less. The same corporations that  profited handsomly from the destruction of our envirionment are now fully funding their own expansions and fossil fuel dependence.

Do we have alternatives? Well yes. But…

The alternatives do not benefit the same large capital-holding entities whos greed created this vicious spiral. Until, we can make a moral and ethical choice to save the environment regardless of cost, because any other route will lead to our own demise, I fully expect big-oil to battle the human race the entire way to the end.

Has there ever been a more real and pressing global issue? I think not.