Texas has taken on an unusual level of interest to me lately for a number of different reasons. Our oldest daughter Phoebe, now lives in the small town of Mason. Texas suffered some of the worst pandemic consequences. And they have risen to share a large amount of the political angst presently gripping the country. It’s alot to unpack. But Jeff Goodell did a great job connecting the dots in a Rolling Stone article last January.
Climate change motivated me to make a big investment in solar a few years ago, and to start contemplating my 1st emissions-free vehicle. Read the article and learn how the planet is reacting in a wholly unified, predictable pattern. These closely related things stand in stark contrast to the attitudes of people and politicians who recognize only their own selfish interests apart from and literally in denial of the environment. We are all in this world together, breathing the same air. Willfully ignorant or not, things are changing with or without our consent or awareness. It’s just that same old thing about the difference between the mistakes made by smart people and dumb people.
“In Texas, the first state to hit one million Covid cases, better disease surveillance would not have changed anything. People were practically dropping dead in the street from the virus, and still you could walk through a medium-sized town and not see a single person wearing a mask. Texas governor Abbott clashed with mayors and county judges over their authority to shut down businesses and enforce mask orders. The people who suffered the most as always, were poor people. people of color, people without health insurance – people on the margins of our high-tech fossil-fueled society. In the end, pandemics are a political problem – not a scientific one.”
