Essay written for Climate Action Week but not submitted.
Tom Powell If we were paying attention, we‘d have seen it coming. It was as clear as the proverbial writing on the wall. The scientists have been warning us for decades now. But most of us have been too wrapped up in living our lives. Now it is here. And like the writing on the wall at Belshazzar’s feast, in the Biblical story of ancient Babylon, the message isn’t good. It is so random and unfair. Like the wrath of a clumsy demon. This home flooded but not that one. This home incinerated but not that one. This family’s livelihood destroyed but not that one. It is as if we are all walking through a minefield and a few get unlucky. In a sense, it has always been this way, with car accidents and disease ripping away loved ones at apparent random. There are more mines now, though, and while perhaps not always lethal, they nonetheless bring heartache. Which one of us will suffer the next flood or wildfire or other weather disaster that up-ends our lives? Our world has changed and none of us, civilised or wild, are prepared for it. Everything, from roads to ecosystems, have adapted to a different climate, one of the past. We now must adjust to a more violent and unpredictable world. We must try to navigate more landmines buried in the path ahead. How do we reconcile the unfairness of this calamity? Why should one family suffer while another remains safe? After all, it is we that are to blame. Some might resolve to live a simple, self-sufficient and low-emissions life, knowing that they, at least, provided little “fuel to the fire”. Others might throw up their hands and say there is nothing to be done – our calamity is written into our economic system; the need now is to protect ourselves and our loved ones as best we can. Still others will shout louder for the need to reform our ways, hoping that the powers that be will listen. We will never know whether Balshazzar might have been saved had he heeded the message on his palace wall. All we know is that he didn’t and he was ruined. For us, there is still time, but the writing also tells us our time is running out. We must all do what we can in the time remaining.
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These are a collection of opinion articles principally written by CKM member Tom Powell for the Marlborough Express. Tom is a retired geologist who came to New Zealand in 2004 to work in the geothermal industry on the North Island, is a New Zealand citizen and now lives in Blenheim. Some articles have been written by other CKM members, and their names appear with those articles. Archives
December 2023
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