News & Articles

A path forward

As the climate on Earth 
becomes more like Hell
A story emerges
that’s ugly to tell
A shortage will come 
of resources we need
for the sick and the homeless
and children to feed
The well-off already
are hoarding their wealth
They own lots of houses
and pay for good health
They own their own cops
Their neighborhood’s gated
to keep them apart
from us, the ill-fated
They want to hoard more
by reducing their taxes
and burden the poor
who are sharpening axes
They think an uprising
is surely to come
so they cut education
to keep us all dumb
They cut public funding
that helps predict weather
and cut all the programs
that bond us together
They buy real estate
that sits on high ground
and leave us the shoreline
where properties drown
They’re deporting the poor
who they think will resist
and narrowing guidelines 
of who can enlist
‘Cause they need to control 
the Armed Forces too
to keep their hordes safe
from people like you

But there is another
way this could go
A whole different world
that our children could know
If we pool our resources
and cut back on fees
Grow food in our cities
and plant lots of trees
If we would invest 
in strong public goods
like teachers and cops
we’d have neighborhoods
with all kinds of people
all working together
to help out each other
in inclement weather
where nobody’s hoarding
or living in greed 
but sharing with neighbors
when they are in need

I know that you’ll laugh
at my childish rhyme
but you can’t make a future
you can’t see in your mind
so imagine a good one
where humanity’s strong
when we work together
we won’t get it wrong
Kyle O’Reilly,
Duluth, Minnesota

What deniers deny

Educated climate scientists know that human-caused C02 is what drives global warming — 99.9% of them with PhDs, agree that global warming is produced by the human use of fossil-fuels i.e. coal, oil and gas. But despite what GOP think tanks say, no one doing climate research is getting rich. Most scientists do receive grants to do scientific research about global warming. But going into research to get rich, causes climate Scientists like Katherine Hayhoe to chuckle, because actually, doing such research costs large amounts of money and takes more than one person.

The largest sum Hayhoe ever received was $1.1 million, which she divided by 5, since she and 4 principle investigators shared the money between them, amounting to $220,000 each. But the research took over 4 years so that amount was divided by 4 again — leaving $55,000 for each. That left Hayhoe $37,000 after she paid $25,000 to the others, and $10,000 for their tuition, leaving only $2,000. Hayhoe bought each student a computer, and paid for them to attend a scientific conference. And during years 3 and 4, she paid for one scientific research paper that cost her about $2,000 dollars. So the original $1.1 million was utterly depleted. That’s why climate scientists laugh, because if they were only in it for money Exxon Mobil would’ve paid them much more.

Many opinion page letter writers, say they are contrarians, and they claim worrying about global warming is a waste of time  – (even though taking action is urgently needed) — which makes them global warming denier! Sometimes they blame other sources, like volcanoes, but even though scientist (did find) 19,000 new undersea volcanoes in 2023 — making 43,000 in total — fossil fuels still produce 100 times more C02 than Volcanoes!

Info from the U.S. Geological Survey, SkepticalScience.org, and Inside Climate News.
Peter W. Johnson
Superior, Wisconsin