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Goodman: The Need For Change Is Urgent

Commentary: Whether we agree or disagree with removing historical figures from places of honor because of their terrible treatment of other groups, we must acknowledge that, in their times and cultures, these figures were regarded as heroes and statesmen. 

Most such people thought of themselves as good. Many now think otherwise. 

 

Southern slave owners thought Blacks were less intelligent. Blacks had no English-language skills and knew nothing of European culture. Whites kept Blacks uneducated, partly to avoid facing the horror of what they were doing. Eventually, the existence of black poets and scholars, if nothing else, should have made equality obvious to anyone whose economic interest or psychological weaknesses didn’t require believing themselves superior to someone. 

The question we all should be asking is how our conduct will be regarded by our great-grandchildren and their kids. They will loathe us for our selfish inaction as the Earth warms. 

We have had ample warning about warming. In 1981, leading scientists warned us in a British TV documentary, “Warming Warning.” In 1988, Dr. James Hansen testified to the U.S. Senate that, “it is already happening now.” In 1997, the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report was published. “An Inconvenient Truth” was released in 2006, but clearly proved too inconvenient. 

Two things are very clear right now: warming is happening faster than predicted, and that as the Earth warms, the harm compounds and grows exponentially. Replacing reflective white ice with brown land and blue seas expedites the warming. 

We are already realizing the consequences of inaction: the melting Alaskan tundra, Miami's endangered water supply, and our 100º days and drought. It was 120º in L.A. county last week. Wildfires have turned the sky over San Francisco a sci-fi orange. Greenland’s ice is melting at a rate once predicted for 2070. In December, fires sent people in Australia running for their lives into the ocean. This week fires threatened Portland, Oregon. 

 It’s too late to prevent significant warming, but we can somewhat mitigate the damage. If we do not take meaningful action soon, including national and personal sacrifices, your kids’ kids’ world (even ours, in a decade or two) will be mighty grim. 

Temperatures will be higher, and stay higher longer, exposing people to potentially fatal heat levels. The Arctic Ocean will be iceless in summer. Forty percent of permafrost will melt, releasing massive amounts of methane and carbon, further raising temperatures. Eighty-plus million people will be refugees. Destructive superstorms will be stronger and more frequent. Rising seas will inundate low areas along the coast, despite vast amounts spent on seawalls. Many areas will be abandoned; but with the world amply populated, and many other areas becoming uninhabitable, where will people go? And what will they eat? 

As our great-grandkids – who will avoid having children because of the ugly world surrounding them, and the scarcity of food – struggle to squeeze into Patagonia and southern New Zealand along with everyone else, I wonder if they will recall our treatment of Latin American immigrants and whisper, “Karma?” Surely – if history is still taught (and taught somewhat honestly) – future generations will hate us. They will know that when their hellish predicament could have been avoided, we knew (or twisted everything around to avoid knowing) and did nothing. 

Our evasions and rationalizations will look even less reasonable and more inhumane to them than slave owners’ do to us. Maybe we should sacrifice some comfort for their sake.