It looks like after all the abuse our species has heaped on our home planet, the Earth Goddess — Mother Nature, Gaia, whatever you want to call her — is striking back.
But there are some silver linings:
Because everything is slowing down, large mega-cities in China like Beijing and Shanghai were famous for their thick layers of smog that were visible from space, but with factories and smoke-belching vehicles silenced, the air has suddenly become clear. The heavily polluted waters of the Venice Canals are now clearer, and there are reports of wildlife returning now that the gondolas are no longer floating in them. People in India can see the Himalayas for the first time in thirty years, and wildlife around the world is thriving (well, except for the scavengers that hang around fast-food places looking for crumbs).
Old people who are more susceptible to complications from COVID-19 are suddenly begging young people to remember us, and the young can say to most of them, “Yeah, like you remembered us when you were destroying the environment we are going to have to live in after you’re gone?” (But do remember that some of us were remembering, calling for change, and plugging electric cars into solar panels.)
And Mother Nature — the Earth Goddess — is going to show us that the Green New Deal, which our leaders said couldn’t be done when we had to scale back to protect the future generations, is suddenly possible. Now that OUR generation is faced with a deadly virus, suddenly it turns out that scaling back is possible, after all.
Humans are sick and retreating from doing what they do so nature has a chance to reassert herself a little bit. Things may not get back to what we think as “normal” when this pandemic has finally run it’s course. Change is taking place.
Can’t see Mother Earth being sympathetic.. its a dog eat dog world out here where every species tries to win.. and it looks like the latest entry.. the COVID-19 thing.. has a good chance to win.
The Republicans and the Trump admin are busy killing off every regulation to protect the earth that the citizens of the USA put into place over 50 years.
If you value life on this planet never vote for a republican.
It occurs to me that the current coronavirus pandemic may provide a useful analogy for getting thru to people who honestly don’t understand climate change. (I do not include in this group of persuadable people the corporate lackeys and toadies who already understand it all too well but whose profits and salaries depend on their pretending in public not to.)
The idea is that it’s not so much the absolute magnitude of the situation that causes distress as the speed with which it arrives. It may well be that eventually 100 million Americans will catch coronavirus, but if it hits 10 million in a single month, it will completely overwhelm the health-care system. Spread out over several years (“flattening the curve”), we can deal with it.
Same thing with climate change. The Earth’s average temperature may eventually increase by 3°C, but if it takes 10,000 years to do it, we (and the rest of the planet) will have time to evolve and adapt to it. Not so if it happens in under a century.
Domestic abuse & child abuse is on the rise. Children can’t graduate to the next school year. Why are car dealership sales for new card essential? I can’t go to a dentist.
The USA yesterday had roughly twice the mortality rate of Denmark, Iran and Germany, three times the rate of Canada, Norway and Ecuador, ten times that of Greece, Poland and Brazil, twenty times that of South Korea, Mexico and Russia, fifty times that of Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and 100 times that of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand.
The dismal data
The situation in the USA is truly disastrous. Yesterday, the USA recorded the highest single-day deaths tally ever, at a staggering 2,804. That was the highest increment of any country. That was more than three times higher than the United Kingdom, which registered the second highest number of new deaths at 828.
Also yesterday, the USA clicked over 25% of all the world’s coronavirus deaths. That’s in a country with 4.25% of the world’s population. US active cases – people yet to recover or yet to die – is by far the world’s highest, at 690,503. This is now 41% of all the world’s cases. The country in next place is the United Kingdom with 111,363 active cases.
The destructive effect of lies
What Trump’s systematic falsehoods serve to encourage impressionable supporters in Texas, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere to defy the lock-down rules and endanger themselves and others.
Who can blame them? The President says all is well. America has no problem at all. America is the one of the countries least affected!
Unsurprisingly, deaths in Ohio yesterday jumped by 48 to 557. The death rate per one million in Ohio rose yesterday from to 43.5 to 47.6. There is no sign of this steady rise slowing.
Conservative (note well!) pundit Rich Lowry: “An irony of the coronavirus debate is that the more successful lockdowns are in squelching the disease, the more vulnerable they will be to attack as unnecessary in the first place. A growing chorus on the right—from conservative talk radio hosts to Republican lawmakers like Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Ken Buck of Colorado—is slamming the shutdowns as a panicked overreaction and agitating to end them, hoping to drive a wedge between President Donald Trump and his more cautious advisers. […]A good example of the genre is an op-ed co-authored by former Education Secretary William Bennett and talk radio host and author Seth Leibsohn . It is titled, tendentiously and not very accurately, “Coronavirus Lessons: Fact and Reason vs. Paranoia and Fear.” Bennett and Leibsohn are intelligent and public-spirited men whom I’ve known for years, but they’ve got this wrong, and in rather elementary ways. They cite the latest estimate of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Washington state that the current outbreak will kill 68,000 Americans. Then, they note that about 60,000 people died of the flu in 2017-18. This is such an obviously flawed way of looking at the question, it’s hard to believe that Bennett and Leibsohn don’t realize it. [note from Godfreydaniel: Could they be IDIOTS? Well, yes………] If we are going to have 60,000 deaths with people not leaving their homes for more than a month, the number of deaths obviously would have been higher—much higher—if everyone had gone about business as usual. We didn’t lock down the country to try to prevent 60,000 deaths; we locked down the country to limit deaths to 60,000 (or whatever the ultimate toll is) from what would have been a number multiples larger. […] As for the flu comparison, it isn’t as telling as Bennett and Leibsohn believe. In the 2011-12 season, 12,000 people died of the flu in the entire country.”
Off the topic, but someone here requested verses I wrote, and I wrote this one this morning, to a tune I think is easily guessed. Here’s the song in DFT’s heart:
Here’s another poster that I just can’t believe is not in wide circulation. See http://www.twainquotes.com/18660210t.html for verification.
“As you say, his lies are not brilliant, but they never slack up—they are always on time. Some of them are awkward—very stupid and awkward—but that is to be expected, of course, where a man is at it so constantly and exhaustively…”—Mark Twain, “Remarkable Dream”
Concretionist about 4 years ago
And just like the pandemic, the sooner we attack Gaia’s fever the better. Preferably 20 years ago… But the next best time is right now!
Y’know we’re going to need some kind of Civilian Conservation Corps thing. Hey. Idea: How about we pay people to help the climate situation.
DD Wiz Premium Member about 4 years ago
It looks like after all the abuse our species has heaped on our home planet, the Earth Goddess — Mother Nature, Gaia, whatever you want to call her — is striking back.
But there are some silver linings:
Because everything is slowing down, large mega-cities in China like Beijing and Shanghai were famous for their thick layers of smog that were visible from space, but with factories and smoke-belching vehicles silenced, the air has suddenly become clear. The heavily polluted waters of the Venice Canals are now clearer, and there are reports of wildlife returning now that the gondolas are no longer floating in them. People in India can see the Himalayas for the first time in thirty years, and wildlife around the world is thriving (well, except for the scavengers that hang around fast-food places looking for crumbs).
Old people who are more susceptible to complications from COVID-19 are suddenly begging young people to remember us, and the young can say to most of them, “Yeah, like you remembered us when you were destroying the environment we are going to have to live in after you’re gone?” (But do remember that some of us were remembering, calling for change, and plugging electric cars into solar panels.)
And Mother Nature — the Earth Goddess — is going to show us that the Green New Deal, which our leaders said couldn’t be done when we had to scale back to protect the future generations, is suddenly possible. Now that OUR generation is faced with a deadly virus, suddenly it turns out that scaling back is possible, after all.
Dtroutma about 4 years ago
Wait till they start extracting his vital fluids instead of injecting them.
SHIVA about 4 years ago
I like the herd of boars roaming the streets in Spain!!!
Cpeckbourlioux about 4 years ago
Look at today’s classic Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson, from 30 years ago. Sad but true!
Zebrastripes about 4 years ago
Happy Earth Day! Nothing happy about it this year, but there’s always next year…..
morningglory73 Premium Member about 4 years ago
Humans are sick and retreating from doing what they do so nature has a chance to reassert herself a little bit. Things may not get back to what we think as “normal” when this pandemic has finally run it’s course. Change is taking place.
Pickled Pete about 4 years ago
Venice canal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmlLNghks1k
Alberta Oil Premium Member about 4 years ago
Can’t see Mother Earth being sympathetic.. its a dog eat dog world out here where every species tries to win.. and it looks like the latest entry.. the COVID-19 thing.. has a good chance to win.
Radish the wordsmith about 4 years ago
The Republicans and the Trump admin are busy killing off every regulation to protect the earth that the citizens of the USA put into place over 50 years.
If you value life on this planet never vote for a republican.
mourdac Premium Member about 4 years ago
Sorry, Tom, but Earth doesn’t care if the human species endures.
jeffhapp about 4 years ago
Mother Nature always bats last.
Michael G. about 4 years ago
Even when humans have their noses rubbed in their own ordure they do as their moods dictate.
Richard S Russell Premium Member about 4 years ago
It occurs to me that the current coronavirus pandemic may provide a useful analogy for getting thru to people who honestly don’t understand climate change. (I do not include in this group of persuadable people the corporate lackeys and toadies who already understand it all too well but whose profits and salaries depend on their pretending in public not to.)
The idea is that it’s not so much the absolute magnitude of the situation that causes distress as the speed with which it arrives. It may well be that eventually 100 million Americans will catch coronavirus, but if it hits 10 million in a single month, it will completely overwhelm the health-care system. Spread out over several years (“flattening the curve”), we can deal with it.
Same thing with climate change. The Earth’s average temperature may eventually increase by 3°C, but if it takes 10,000 years to do it, we (and the rest of the planet) will have time to evolve and adapt to it. Not so if it happens in under a century.
honeypot53 Premium Member about 4 years ago
Domestic abuse & child abuse is on the rise. Children can’t graduate to the next school year. Why are car dealership sales for new card essential? I can’t go to a dentist.
Radish the wordsmith about 4 years ago
Bill Barr threatens to sue governors for saving the lives of their citizens
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/21/1939181/-Bill-Barr-threatens-to-sue-governors-for-saving-the-lives-of-their-citizens
Radish the wordsmith about 4 years ago
It looks like Bill Barr is the one who gave Trump the absurd idea that he has ‘total authority’ to force states to reopen
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/it-looks-like-bill-barr-is-the-one-who-gave-trump-the-absurd-idea-that-he-has-total-authority-to-force-states-to-reopen/
Radish the wordsmith about 4 years ago
Trump continues to lie. Americans continue to die
The USA yesterday had roughly twice the mortality rate of Denmark, Iran and Germany, three times the rate of Canada, Norway and Ecuador, ten times that of Greece, Poland and Brazil, twenty times that of South Korea, Mexico and Russia, fifty times that of Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and 100 times that of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand.
The dismal data
The situation in the USA is truly disastrous. Yesterday, the USA recorded the highest single-day deaths tally ever, at a staggering 2,804. That was the highest increment of any country. That was more than three times higher than the United Kingdom, which registered the second highest number of new deaths at 828.
Also yesterday, the USA clicked over 25% of all the world’s coronavirus deaths. That’s in a country with 4.25% of the world’s population. US active cases – people yet to recover or yet to die – is by far the world’s highest, at 690,503. This is now 41% of all the world’s cases. The country in next place is the United Kingdom with 111,363 active cases.
The destructive effect of lies
What Trump’s systematic falsehoods serve to encourage impressionable supporters in Texas, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere to defy the lock-down rules and endanger themselves and others.
Who can blame them? The President says all is well. America has no problem at all. America is the one of the countries least affected!
Unsurprisingly, deaths in Ohio yesterday jumped by 48 to 557. The death rate per one million in Ohio rose yesterday from to 43.5 to 47.6. There is no sign of this steady rise slowing.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/22/1939386/-Trump-continues-to-lie-Americans-continue-to-die?utm_campaign=recent
ferddo about 4 years ago
Once things get back to normal, people will go back to denying that pollution is bad for you…
Bookworm about 4 years ago
It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.(Tagline of an old Chiffon Soft Stick Margarine commercial.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijVijP-CDVI
Godfreydaniel about 4 years ago
Conservative (note well!) pundit Rich Lowry: “An irony of the coronavirus debate is that the more successful lockdowns are in squelching the disease, the more vulnerable they will be to attack as unnecessary in the first place. A growing chorus on the right—from conservative talk radio hosts to Republican lawmakers like Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Ken Buck of Colorado—is slamming the shutdowns as a panicked overreaction and agitating to end them, hoping to drive a wedge between President Donald Trump and his more cautious advisers. […]A good example of the genre is an op-ed co-authored by former Education Secretary William Bennett and talk radio host and author Seth Leibsohn . It is titled, tendentiously and not very accurately, “Coronavirus Lessons: Fact and Reason vs. Paranoia and Fear.” Bennett and Leibsohn are intelligent and public-spirited men whom I’ve known for years, but they’ve got this wrong, and in rather elementary ways. They cite the latest estimate of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Washington state that the current outbreak will kill 68,000 Americans. Then, they note that about 60,000 people died of the flu in 2017-18. This is such an obviously flawed way of looking at the question, it’s hard to believe that Bennett and Leibsohn don’t realize it. [note from Godfreydaniel: Could they be IDIOTS? Well, yes………] If we are going to have 60,000 deaths with people not leaving their homes for more than a month, the number of deaths obviously would have been higher—much higher—if everyone had gone about business as usual. We didn’t lock down the country to try to prevent 60,000 deaths; we locked down the country to limit deaths to 60,000 (or whatever the ultimate toll is) from what would have been a number multiples larger. […] As for the flu comparison, it isn’t as telling as Bennett and Leibsohn believe. In the 2011-12 season, 12,000 people died of the flu in the entire country.”
Godfreydaniel about 4 years ago
Oh, and about Radish’s posts about the contemptible Bill Barr: This is what HAPPENS when you let Al Capone join the police force!
Kip W about 4 years ago
Off the topic, but someone here requested verses I wrote, and I wrote this one this morning, to a tune I think is easily guessed. Here’s the song in DFT’s heart:
Oh, beautiful for unmarked bills
For checks made out to me,
For money owed to stupid shills—
The dough they’ll never see!
.
Emoluments, emoluments,
It’s lovely to be me!
I’m living large on every charge
From fee to shining fee!
.
Emoluments for golf course graft
I charge each time I go
I’ve double dipped and loudly laughed
More than you’ll ever know!
.
Emoluments, emoluments,
God gives me them for free
And greases palms
With unearned alms
That all come back to me!
.
Emoluments for golf cart rent
The Secret Service needs
To do their job in government
That feeds me as it bleeds.
.
Emoluments, emoluments,
The upside of my job
I’ll be, I swear, a billionaire
From all the shills I rob!
.
Emoluments from family biz
That skirts around the laws
Each grown-up child gets hers or his
Clutched firm in family paws!
.
Emoluments, emoluments,
That trickle through my kin
My heart goes thump at every chump:
My god, how it rolls in!
.
I met the ghost of Tammany
Who’d never wept before,
But tears fell fast, as “Sir,” said he
“You’ve topped my grift, and more!
.
“Emoluments, emoluments,
I doff my hat to you!
You’ve grabbed the pelf, enriched yourself,
In ways we never knew!"
MichaelHutson1 about 4 years ago
Hey Toles, since you’re so concerned about emissions, how about you volunteer to have your electricity turned off?
theoldidahofox about 4 years ago
The Greatest, Most Beautiful Funeral Everhttps://tinyurl.com/y93va4nd
OLDavratt59 about 4 years ago
This panel needs to become a poster, or meme, or something…
SameAsOldFfred about 4 years ago
Here’s another poster that I just can’t believe is not in wide circulation. See http://www.twainquotes.com/18660210t.html for verification.
“As you say, his lies are not brilliant, but they never slack up—they are always on time. Some of them are awkward—very stupid and awkward—but that is to be expected, of course, where a man is at it so constantly and exhaustively…”—Mark Twain, “Remarkable Dream”