Untitled

I have not been active on my blog for quite some time, but I did have several saved posts which I intended to finish but never have. This post called "Untitled" was just sitting in line waiting to be completed. When I opened the post I was saw a picture of two beautiful luscious peaches. I have no clue what I had intended to blog about!! I was about to delete the picture, but kept looking at the pictures and I found that I was experiencing a sensory memory. I could almost feel the warmth of the peach in my hand and the feeling of juice running down my chin as I bit into one. I tried to describe to myself what it tasted like and couldn't come up with the words and yet I knew exactly what it tasted like. I decided to Google "what does a peach taste like" hoping for a description that was just right, but found this description that yellow peaches have a "classic peachy flavor". (and what is a "peachy" flavor?) Another description was tangy mellowing to sweetness. Anyone who has tasted a yellow- red  (orange) sun ripened peach can tell you those words are inadequate.  I probably should say "were" inadequate because in the last few years I have been disappointed with the taste of all summer fruits. I imagine they are picked before they can be sun ripened and often there is little taste--or juice! 

SORRY WORLD

I started this post on June 1st, 2017--The day Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord. The withdrawal cannot actually take place for four years so in some ways it is right now "symbolic". I stopped writing right after I typed in the title because I wanted to do some research to find out if global warming and climate change were real or a "hoax" as some have said.  

95-97% of climate scientists agree that climate change is real and much of it is related to human causes. Why then does the President and many of his Republican colleagues and base of supporters maintain that there is no global warming because at times there is record cold and record snowfalls? One reason maybe that oil and gas companies, along with the coal industry to lessor degree, make large contributions to their campaigns. Many claim that weather changes are all part of a "natural cycle". There is a difference between climate change and a natural cycle. Quoting from an OSSfoundation.us.projects/environment/global-warming/ article found when doing a Google search: "in a natural cycle CO2 lags behind the warming because it is mainly due to the Milankovitch cycles.* Now CO2 is currently leading the warming. Current warming is clearly not a natural cycle."

 From articles I have read and scientist I have listened to on television I believe global warming is real-- I feel sad that people, including many of them leading our government, have chosen to ignore or contest the beliefs and evidence held by such a large segment of the scientific community. I am far nearer to the end of my life than to the beginning so these changes will probably not directly affect me, however it is likely that they will affect my grandchildren and their children and their children and many future generations. The loss of plants, insects, birds and animals will undoubtedly be dramatic. While many go extinct as a natural process we are currently losing species at an accelerated pace due mostly to humans activity. Why would we want to hasten their disappearance? 


The day that we were going to leave the Paris Climate Agreement I felt sad, sad that it seemed we were taking steps backward instead of forward. What came to my mind were the words, "Sorry World". 

This post has taken me a long time to finish (was it really 2017 when I started it??) I am not sure why, maybe I just felt that since Trump's withdrawal was almost 2 years ago it wasn't as meaningful as it might have been in June, 2017. Lately however there has been 
even more startling information on the acceleration of changes which will result in not being able to reverse the damage. 

Sorry World.

*Milankovitch cycles describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth's movements on its climate over thousands of years. The term is named for Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković. Wikipedia