Suicide Watch on Planet Earth

http://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/26/suicide-watch-on-planet-earth/
Date Written:  2019-03-26
Publisher:  CounterPunch
Year Published:  2019
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23638

The burning of Notre Dame cathedral, while tragic, is nothing compared to the damage to our planet brought by climate change.

Abstract: 
--

Excerpt:

That cathedral in flames, unlike so much else in our moment (including you-know-who in his every waking moment), deserved the front-and-center media attention it got. Historically speaking, it was a burning event of the first order. Still, it's strange that the most unnerving, deeply terrifying burning underway today, not of that ancient place of worship that lived with humanity for so many tumultuous centuries but of the planet itself, remains largely in the background....

And let’s not kid ourselves, this planet of ours is beginning to burn - and not just last week or month either. It's been smoldering for decades now. Last summer, for instance, amid global heat records (Ouargla, Algeria, 124 degrees Fahrenheit; Hong Kong, over 91 degrees Fahrenheit for 16 straight days; Nawabsha, Pakistan, 122 degrees Fahrenheit; Oslo, Norway, over 86 degrees Fahrenheit for 16 consecutive days; Los Angeles, 108 degrees Fahrenheit), wildfires raged inside the Arctic Circle. This March, in case you hadn’t noticed - and why would you, since it’s gotten so little attention? - the temperature in Alaska was, on average, 20 degrees (yes, that is not a misprint) above normal and typical ice roads between villages and towns across parts of that state were melting and collapsing with deaths ensuing.