Climate

There was a July in Portland, about 25 years ago, when daily mist and drizzle rotted tomatoes and mildewed squashes. We couldn’t imagine summers hot enough to grow California-size cantaloupe. But this year’s bounty of sweet, Mediterranean foods convinced even skeptics that climate warnings had been accurate. Now reports of still hotter summers elicit mature concern. If watermelons are in our future, what will happen to our forests? And our way of life?

Oregonians sought relief from the stingy sun by building roofs on decks or putting in a swimming pool. The average Joe, who muscled through the 3-4 days of 90+ weather before, retrofitted his house with a window unit. The foot-loose-and-fancy-free flew south to ski. Retirees took a cruise to islands north of Norway. “Just because it’s getting hotter, doesn’t mean I have to suffer.”

We’re in a quandary though, because the things we do to escape the heat contribute to the heat we’re trying to escape. The more we fly and drive and build, the more fossil fuel we burn. Every time we turn on the air conditioner to cool ourselves we heat the outside air just slightly, which nudges one more person to buy an air conditioner, and so on.

“But,” we ask, “what are we supposed to do? After all, none of us pollutes enough to affect the climate. It’s not as if one more car on an already congested freeway makes congestion worse. And filling the last seat on a commercial flight barely increases the plane’s pollution. Am I supposed to stay home while others are getting away and having fun?”

The climate changes because 7.3 billion people go about their lives, in factories, at backyard barbeques, in malls or on water skis. Trillions and trillions of miniscule acts add up. The result: a polluted environment, extinct species, acidified oceans and forecasts of significantly hotter summers.

We need a social structure suited to humankind’s present relationship with Earth. A hundred years ago, we numbered just 2 billion. We were small and vulnerable to Nature. Now we are a threat to Her. Overpopulation and depleted resources affect humans too, as evidenced by mass migrations, calls for tougher borders, squabbles over in-fill, congestion, etc. We’ve filled the Earth with ourselves and our stuff. Now what?

The social structure that got us here can’t carry us forward any more than Columbus’ ships could carry Lewis and Clark across North America. We’re in new circumstances that require a new vessel.

For millennia, as we multiplied and expanded, our ‘vessel’ was captained by the explorers, warriors and conquerors. Male leadership was indisputable. But now, male leaders have no lands to invade except those owned by the 99%. The leaders give themselves tax breaks and block universal health care, saying in effect, “our lives matter and yours don’t.” They take public companies private in order to keep America’s prosperity in their hands. If they’re allowed to buy parts of our National Monuments, wealth inequality worsens. On a filled-up Earth, unchecked male leadership threatens democracy and environmental well-being.

There is another option, which is to see ourselves as part of a community, as part of a global village in which all lives share one destiny.

Community has always been the province of woman. The village was always her domain. Woman needs an equal voice now, especially in politics and business. Vote for woman, for her perspective and her standards.