Can you see what's before your eyes if you're short-sighted?

On March 16, Mike Mulvaney, Office of Management and Budget Director, told reporters that in the matter of government climate change research, "The President was fairly straight-forward: We're not spending money on that any more....We consider that a waste of your money...." 

WE consider that a waste of YOUR money.

Thanks for being so caring about how our money is used, but you didn't ask any of us. If you had, you would have heard, as reported by the New York Times (How Americans Think About Climate Change, in Six Maps) on March 21, "Americans overwhelmingly believe that global warming is happening, and that carbon emissions should be scaled back." Again, thanks for being so caring about our money, but is sounds as if a lot of us might want you to spend OUR money figuring out how to slow the pace of something that threatens the existence of every living thing on this planet.

It's somewhat of a relief to hear that the majority of Americans have finally realized something bad is happening to our planet. The distressing thing is "most don't believe it will harm them."

The article explains:

           Part of this is the problem of risk perception.

Global warming is precisely the kind of threat humans are awful at dealing with: a problem with enormous consequences over the long term, but little that is sharply visible on a personal level in the short term. Humans are hard-wired for quick fight-or-flight reactions in the face of an imminent threat, but not highly motivated to act against slow-moving and somewhat abstract problems, even if the challenges that they pose are ultimately dire.

I can understand this. During March at Bean Hill, we had wildly fluctuating temperatures (brutally cold early on in the month, then warmly spring, then back to brutal, then back to spring...) that made everything average out to "normal". No records were set. We had enough rain to almost wipe out the deficit created by a much too dry start to the year. I'm a chronic climate change worrier, and yet one deceptively normal month makes me feel almost secure. So I guess if you live somewhere untouched (to date) by uncontrollable wildfires, or tornadoes, winds, and floods more monstrous than ever before recorded, you believe climate change is a serious problem, just not your problem.

Keeping an eye on things

Short-sightedness is going to be the death of us. That's why I began this blog. I hope to encourage you to look very closely at your own flora and fauna. Listen to yourself as you say, "I never saw this happen before" or "this has been the hottest or driest [name your season] I can remember" or "I haven't seen many Monarchs this year" or "There used to be bees all over this garden." And then share your observations, because according to the Times article, only a third of us are talking about climate change, a third of us never do, and who knows what that other third is doing. The article didn't mention.

As Rachel Maddow says, "Pay attention, people!"