Light

R_evolution by Guillem Mari

Present Light - Charles Ghigna

If I could

hold light

in my hand

 

I would

give it

to you

 

and watch it

become

your shadow.

Snow, Science, and the Nutters

Andrew Mather Photography

Good morning, central Missouri!

This morning I awoke to a light dusting of snow and a string Facebook statuses like this:

“It is fucking snowing right now. The next hippy that starts spewing bullshit about global warming I am going to proceed to knock your teeth out.”

At which point it was time to click the little X and filter another nutter out of my Facebook feed. Seriously, “nutter” is the best word I can find to describe these folks other than “willfully ignorant” and “dumb ass.” Do these people seriously think that a single, local weather observation negates the overwhelming evidence that humankind is wrecking havoc on our planet and that the planet is wrecking havoc right back.

Don't they remember last summer's scorching temperatures and nation-wide drought? Don't they remember that we had fucking tornadoes in February last year. Tornadoes.....in January! If you look a more globally, in 2012, 10 million people in west Africa struggled with food shortages and starvation linked to drought. Australia had to add a new color to their weathermap to cover temperatures soaring over 122 degrees.

I suppose this willful ignorance is fed by the misconceptions linked to the term “global warming.” They must figure that if global warming is a real problem, then it should be warmer....everywhere....and all the time. However, I read a wonderful analogy in Starhawk's The Earth Path that I've been hurling at nutters for a while now. She conceptualizes global warming like this: imagine the earth as a big pot with all the winds and tides swirling around soup-like. When you turn up the temperature, everything simmers faster and harder. After a few minutes you may still have a lump of potato that's still cool in the center, but the whole pot has become a simmering shit-storm.

This Honduran “desert” was pasture and farmland before
 Hurricane Mitch arrived in November 1998.
National Geographic

Or as they explain over at National Geographic, “In an open letter to the American people, the authors of the latest National Climate Assessment said that the frequency and duration of extreme [weather] conditions are clear signs of a changing climate.

'Summers are longer and hotter, and periods of extreme heat last longer than any living American has experienced,' they wrote. 'Winters are generally shorter and warmer. Rain comes in heavier downpours, though in many regions there are longer dry spells in between.'" 

Now I wrangle with folks about access to birth control, gun regulation, standardized testing and all sorts of hippie-feminist-liberal-leaning issues. None of them trigger the same fury as people who deny climate change and enable others to deny climate change.

Last month I stormed home after a day of substitute teaching a fantastic article on climate change and severe weather. Loved every bit of it until I read the final question, “Is global warming a real threat or a hoax?” What kind of teacher assigns her students to read an article with dozens of scientifically accurate, peer-reviewed FACTS that climate change is real and then flippantly asks her students if it is a hoax? Ten years ago maybe we could spar about the reality of climate change and global warming. However, it's time to re-frame the discussion. This is no longer a conversation asking if climate change is a problem, it's a question about how we will be impacted and what are we going to do about it.

I find myself appalled and infuriated not just by the nutters, but by the enablers who allow the nutters to hijack the conversation into a quibble about statistics and a few April snow flurries rather than a discussion that strives toward solutions.

Joel Pett's meme-worthy take on climate change. There'd a TEDtalk 
about it too. 

Music on Monday

After the glorious timelessness of the weekend, the real world is reasserting itself disguised as Monday. However, I still have stars in my eyes and mind. Here's a scattering of cosmically themed tracks to launch you into the work week.

First off, Laura Mvula performing "Sing to the Moon" at the Full Future Festival. You can enjoy the entire album is you hop over to NPR Music.

Stepping back in time, The Moody Blues imagine astronauts as futuristic gypsies "left without a hope of coming home." I personally rank the Moody Blues among the most underrated psychedelic rock bands of the 1970s. They create hauntingly evocative soundscapes that were imprinted in my brain as a young child half asleep in my beanbag while my father drank coffee and jammed out his favorite tunes.

This live performance of Jai Uttal's "Let Me Be Sky" makes me wonder how long I'd have to live on granola and green smoothies to be yoga-cool enough to kick it with these folks at Spirit Rock meditation center--where this particular track was recorded. Even if I could wash all the smoke out of my hair, I'd probably be escorted off the premises once they realized Coyote has fleas. Would you believe Coyote and I are such yogi heretics that I can't even embed the video? You'll just have to follow the link. 

And finally, the anthem of my "walking around town late at night unable to decide if that's a tar trail or a snake on the road" early twenties: "Stellar" by Incubus.

 Happy journey, cosmic travelers. If you need extra tunes for a long voyage, you can always explore Hearts of Space, a public radio program dedicated to "slow music for fast times."