new year, same problems

Climate change has been a serious concern for many, many decades, and we simply brush them off anyway because, you know, we keep telling ourselves, “What could happen here?”

Duh.

Despite the increasing number of signs—raging storms, beached whales, earthquakes, droughts, wildfires and blizzards, a flower blooming its last bloom—we simply laugh.

Or we drink. We take selfies. We share memes. We say, “Happy New Year!” We smoke our cigarettes. We desire the latest iPhone. We drive our third cars. We make more babies. We travel because “we travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us.” We eat our cakes. We mine our mountains. We make “art.” We shoot the birds in the skies. We ridicule those who clean up beaches and hug trees. We cut more trees. We swim with whale sharks. We fume at the protesters and rallies in the streets. We share our “thoughts and prayers.” We go to the movies. We say, “We are only human.” We say, “Whatever makes people happy.” We dance and sing. We gossip over wine and cheese. We elect the same shit. We throw our trash anywhere. We pee everywhere. We do not talk to our exes. We continue with our lies. We maintain multiple profile accounts on Facebook. We update our Spotify playlists. We “move on.” We dramatize the same sunset. We look at the full moon. We feel #blessed.

Meanwhile, corporations and our leaders and our governments take advantage of our collective indifference, our misgivings, our lapses.

Now we face the consequences.