The news is not improving . . .

Hello again!

So . . . the world wants change. And Trump is the one to give it. Sexist, climate change denier, dodgy businessman; complete loose cannon. I'm not the only one who's feeling a bit anxious about this.

"Catalyst" last night was about the Anthropocene Era. Apparently geologists are about to declare that a new era has begun where the planet has been changed by human actions. Unprecedented warming, radiation and new trace elements appearing in sediments - the evidence is there.

Sticking our collective heads in the sand and ignoring what is happening won't help. We have already changed our climate. The severity of the impact is the question. We need to make changes now that will prevent catastrophic global warming - extreme weather events, increasing extinctions, crop failures. This is not the world I want to leave for my children to inherit.

And the really distressing thing is that we know what to do. As the concerned geologists on the program pointed out, we have the technology. Yet  we continue to allow investment in unsustainable coal power. We continue to encourage (as a society) the consumption that has led to our current predicament. We are consuming beyond the point that can be supported by our planet.

Don't believe in over-consumption? Go look in the cupboard. How much stuff is there that you don't need? When was the last time you up-dated your smart phone? How often do you have to "declutter"?  If you found lots of junk you must be part of the 17% of the world's population whose consumption and energy guzzling has contributed most to the problem. Are we going to jeopardize the future because we couldn't be bothered modifying our life-style?