Angkor Wat, by Liza Steele
23 December 2011: Holiday
Thoughts 2011-2012
It's been about a
week since we heard from a team of experts that we're passing the point of no
environmental return.
I met an employee of
the EPA last week and thought a moment as I looked into his eyes. Then my head
spun. "You, above all the other executive divisions, have a full plate."
That sure beat my
previous comment to another EPA employee: "EPA isn't doing anything, is it?" I
was implying that their hands were tied, to put it mildly. I meant no offense.
She was on her way to meet with John Kerry, so I sent along my regards.
My wide-eyed
amazement is that this is the one percent's world, too--a place they're
bequeathing to their children. All the money in the world can't buy back
environmental deterioration such as they're allowing.
My thoughts retreat
to that beautiful scene in Fellini's "Satyricon" where the poet speaks to a younger
man of his legacy to the world. It's not the written word.
"I leave you the
sun, that source of light; the mountains that it arrays in a spectral radiance twice
a day; the trees that sway so gently as the wind sings through them. . . ."
Etc. This is not a
verbatim quote, but a broad paraphrase. I was so transfixed by these lines I
searched the body of written literature for clues to its origin and found none.
Were these Fellini's lines? Does anyone know?
Today what lines
would that poet intone? "Come die with me while still the sunset is so lovely"?
His delicate lungs would be hocking and spitting as he spoke, so used were they
to purer airs, though Rome was no Elysium.
Enough backtracking.
No time for poetry now.
What can we do? Can
we seal what's left of pure environments in cornerstones? Animals and
vegetables are being devoured and spat out ruined by minerals.
Briefly I turn my
hopes to "them." You know, those amorphous people in white coats in
laboratories who create test tubes of stuff to cure us. Will they aim at
climate change or the people causing it? Surely science can invent a cure for
this lethal mental/environmental devastation.
Where is it, "they"?
What are "they"
working on now? What is the main focus of scientific effort now? Nukes? Cars
that will subtract a few hydrocarbons from the air by 2025? Texas, the oil
king, also leads the nation with its acres of windmills, doesn't it?
What can "they" do
to save the world? Battle the cause or the effects? We, the 99 percent, are
taking to specific streets to demonstrate around specific lavish, wrought-iron
estates containing molecules of the cause of this visible decay they are
ignoring, rationalizing away. We are relocating homeless people into foreclosed
homes, a pragmatic solution to their suffering, and the neighborhoods are
already "shot," from a realtor's point of view.
I believe strongly
that "they" can battle against the effects; learn to control the climate;
invent little creatures that will eat all that Exxon/Mobil and Chevron oil destroying
our waters--not just the top layer; will "they" wake up and reverse their
priorities soon enough? If not, will "they" be able to invent miracles?
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