{"id":111254,"date":"2020-02-25T11:07:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T16:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=111254"},"modified":"2020-02-25T11:07:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T16:07:20","slug":"column-from-here-and-back-again-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=111254","title":{"rendered":"COLUMN: From Here and Back Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We need to declare war. Now.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re very accustomed to being at war. Scholars have found in our history there have been at most 18 consecutive years without being at war someplace for some reason. Most scholars go lower, sayings its five years. The difference comes in what counts as war; the Revolutionary War itself, Indian Wars, Shay\u2019s Rebellion, the Civil War, police actions (Korea), undeclared wars, (Vietnam) or the obvious World Wars I and II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Afghan War is now about 20 years old, including Iraq,\ncosting $2.9 trillion as of 2017 and with the loss of more than 2,400 American\nsoldiers and 38,000 Afghan citizens. But we\u2019ve been there, done that, even\nhaving a war against drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, I\u2019m proposing a different kind of war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One difference between the war I am proposing and those\nabove is that the above, especially the major ones, had faces of evil. They had\na common enemy to raise our ire, our patriotism, our desire to destroy: Hitler,\nStalin, Mussolini, Ho Chi Min, Castro, Mao, Crazy Horse and Geronimo, savages\nor an axis of evil. The war I propose has such a face, but it is Pogo true in\ncharacter. Remember Pogo? He said, \u201cWe have met the enemy, and it is us.\u201d And\nwho wants to fight us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am, of course proposing a war on climate change. I\u2019m not\ngoing into the science of climate change herein, but there are those who hold obvious\nhappenings are simply part of the natural historical pattern of cycles of hot\nand cold. The cycles are indisputable, and we may be in such a warming time.\nEven so, this does not eliminate human-induced climate change as a factor, even\na large factor, as contributing to such change. Read the daily news of glaciers\ndisappearing, huge chunks of ice breaking off the Arctic, Antarctic and\nGreenland masses, droughts around the world leading to immigration, huge\nwildfires, species habitats changing and so much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I repeat, human-induced change may not be \u201ccausing\u201d these\nevents, but it logically has an impact. A reason is yet needed for my\nsuggestion to declare war on climate change, especially human-induced change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some important reasons\/warnings follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From \u201cThe Hill,\u201d talking of Exxon, one report noted \u201cThe\ncorporation\u2019s actions, however, demonstrate something else entirely: an\nextensive, expensive campaign to deny climate science, deceive the American\npeople about the health and environmental ruin caused by global warming, and\nstop action by governments to address Planet Earth\u2019s rapidly accelerating\nclimate crisis.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much of the opposition to this comes from corporations,\nbillionaires and greedy politicians? A very large percent of world societies\nand scientists say that humans are the main cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Huff Post writes, \u201cEvery\nmajor scientific organization in the United States with relevant expertise has\nconfirmed the IPCC\u2019s conclusion, including the National Academy of Sciences,[2] the\nAmerican Meteorological Society,[5] the American Geophysical Union,[6] and\nthe American Association for the Advancement of Science.[7] The list of\ninternational scientific organizations affirming the worldwide consensus on\nclimate change is even longer (see List of Organizations<\/a>). Several studies have shown that\nabout 97 percent of climate scientists actively doing research agree that\nclimate change is happening and is human-caused.[8] and [9.]\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study published in May, 2013 examined 11,944 climate\nabstracts from 1991\u20132011 in peer-reviewed scientific literature and affirmed\nthat 97.1 percent of these scientists endorsed the consensus position that\nhumans are causing global warming. There are those, including scientists, who\nsay it\u2019s all a hoax. And what a worldwide hoax and list of characters it would\nbe. You must decide, and keep in mind you are playing the odds whatever you\nbelieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, from Figueres, \u201cIt is in this decade that we\nwill either reach a concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that is\nso dangerous that we will not be able to manage the negative consequences for\nyears to come and the increasingly destructive forces of nature will wreak\nhavoc upon, not just infrastructure and biodiversity, but also on the ability\nof humans to live on this pla<\/em>net.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calling for such war is not for the future. It is needed\nimmediately. I\u2019m 81, and calling for such an immediate war is not likely to\nbenefit me and Carol so much, but we have children, grandchildren and great\ngrandchildren 10 and 7. What about you? Such a war will require drastic lifestyle\nchanges seeking something other than \u201ctotal victory\u201d not immediately but in the\nfuture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often tough for people to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom line, what\u2019s the likely result if we make war and drastic\nlifestyle changes only to find human actions innocent? We\u2019ll create new jobs,\nexpand science and inventions, create currently un-thought-of technologies, new\nmedicines and perhaps even bring the people of the world closer together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often unmentioned, we\u2019ll reduce the 1.2 million annual\nasthma and bronchial cases attributed to air pollution. And if we don\u2019t take\naction, and the vast majority of scientists are correct that human-induced\nclimate change is real and severe? We\u2019ll have more frequent, severe weather,\ndisruption of food and transfer of materials, more disease and drought and\nfire, water quality and quantity will be changed, loss of species and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s it going to be, expediency or tomorrow; our\ncomfort today or protecting our children\u2019s future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: Jim Coufal\nresides in Cazenovia and is an observer of global trends.<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We need to declare war. Now. We\u2019re very accustomed to being at war. Scholars have found in our history there have been at most 18 consecutive years without being at war someplace for some reason. Most scholars go lower, sayings its five years. The difference comes in what counts as war; the Revolutionary War itself, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23677,23808,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-sWq","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Jim-Coufal.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}