Winter Storms

We have had another fierce winter storm come through. There is a fatalism about it; it's the weather, what can you do?  They salt the roads before and after. People die in car crashes. Poor folk die from the cold. Was it as bad as the last one? Debate.

And yet: fatalism is learned. Changing weather patterns grab more moisture and bring it across more stretches of land as the atmosphere has more energy pumped into it. This is what scientists have been talking about since the 1970's, the impact of our polluting the atmosphere.

We are doing this. In theory we can stop. Any action that requires the cooperation of literally millions of people requires political leadership. 

So, fatalism is learned. US politicians are too tied to the fossil fuel industry to turn our policies away in a meaningful fashion. Our politics are too corrupt for citizens to have an influence.

Fatalism is learned with every media churn that tells us that there is nothing we can do.  Apathy and cynicism will maintain the status quo.

Fatalism is unlearned with every small step of resistance, every effort to reduce our carbon footprint, every time we let our candidates know that this is an issue that determines our vote.

Fatalism is unlearned when we teach our young to heed the science, not to believe it uncritically (for that is always bad science) but to understand and evaluate the evidence as best they can that fossil fuel as an industry will have to go the way of the tobacco industry, sunk over the overwhelming body of facts contradicting the lies about climate change being a hoax.