Can We Be Planetary Stewards Or Will We Wait To Kill Ourselves?

By Donald A. Collins | 29 October 2020
Church and State

Did any of you happen to view the Wednesday 10/29/20 WETA programs on nature and the effects of global warming? The urgent attention needed to implement planetary solutions was made very clear.

PBS, now celebrating a distinguished 50th Anniversary since its founding, will doubtless feature these programs elsewhere around the US and it will be worth your while to see how much the private sector is doing to find solutions.

As the Coronavirus pandemic rages on and President Trump on his mad dash around the country rants at his tightly packed crowds of mostly unmasked partisans, our planet warms and our population increases beyond sustainability.

Are we to adopt the vast plausible scientific advice now given to our leaders which lets us humans become stewards implementing solutions to global warming or do we decide to kill ourselves—or certainly more of us than any pandemic or atomic war?

It is time to recognize our hapless rush to disaster despite having the scientific knowledge of the pending effects of our intransigence.

A world meeting at the UN Security Council is urgently needed which could highlight the intentions of all nations and encourage recognitions of the dangers of delay.

What a moment for our showing world leadership should Biden win. He showed signs of real statesmanship during his final debate with Trump when he talked of ending government subsidies for fossil fuel and phasing into other forms of non-polluting energy. As those PBS TV programs showed, our private sector is already spending significant money seeking solutions to the problem of global warming.

If Trump gets 4 more years, it is difficult to postulate all the downside possibilities.

Regardless of your party, your religion or your ethnic category, the circumstances of our planet’s air, water and stability are now dangerously challenged and pointed at the devastation our scientists have described in detail and many responsible media outlets such as PBS have brought via outstandingly clear programs on global warming to our mass media.

When I watch the oft repeated sickening sight of those unmasked, closely packed Trump crowds standing around to hear a serial liar tell them the pandemic is going away, I am repulsed.

Our planetary future is hanging by a thread and the results of November 3rd get even more hugely important!

pic.twitter.com/9IUggyNqe9
— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) October 29, 2020

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC., has spent over 40 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013.

From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013