Change is Apparent…in my Pocket, in my Climate

Sometimes I forget to take change out of my pocket because I’m waiting until I get to my office desk and I can dump them into the little box I use to collect coins. I can feel the weight of them in my pocket, yet I tend to forget that they’re there—until I undress and all the coins scatter onto the floor, and I have to crawl around to find them.

I am baffled by people who deny climate change; they ignore something they should be able to notice with simple observations. For example, there are photos of me as a child in a snowsuit being dwarfed by plowed snowbanks. I’m taller now, but those snowbanks are few and far between here in 21st Century Pennsylvania.

I used to include a final bonus question on my Intro to Theatre exams:

BONUS! I found this exam to be:
a) A cool breeze on a warm summer day.
b) A cold wind lowering the wind chill factor.
c) A late April snow.
d) An Arctic gale force wind whipping through my flesh.

I created that question after a particularly late snow in Northeast PA—late April, to be exact. But this year I saw blooming flowers in late February. Today I’m listening to birdsong that seems a bit early for mid-March. And summer gardening will provide numerous bits of evidence that things, they are a-changing.

So why ignore it? Why does the political agenda of some people refuse to allow them to see or to admit dire things are happening? Is it simply being a member of the No Party (say no to, repeal, or impeach everything)? Or is there a more insidious purpose, to destroy the world so that Jesus will come back sooner?

I really don’t think that’s the right approach to life on Earth—to assume they will have a reward in Heaven. And it threatens billions of us, and all life on our planet, with extinction.