Burning Man 2
Original mixed media, 8" X 10", unframed
On August thirty first of this year, I posted some comments related to the yearly
festival called Burning Man. I used the name of that festival as a reminder of the fact
our planet is in a climate crisis, due to global warming, caused by our continued burning
of fossil fuels. The year 2023 was the hottest on record, and 2024 is already set to
break that record. The overheated, turbulent air and oceans, are creating ever more
intense and numerous storms and hurricanes around the globe, with massive flooding,
as well as droughts and out of control wild fires, killing people and destroying property
and vital infrastructure. Heat related deaths are increasing every year.
The Biden administration has passed some significant legislation to help increase our
reliance on renewable green energy, and reduce our use of oil and coal, despite constant
Republican opposition. But on November 5th, a misinformed and ignorant block of
voters, swept away progress, and returned an insurrectionist, convicted felon to the
office of the president of our nation. He is already busily appointing his anti-science,
anti-truth vandals to head all of the important branches of the administration. The
man he has put in place of policy for energy production, is an oil man, who uses
environmentally dangerous method of extracting oil from the land, and he is a man
who puts personal profit ahead of what is best for the nation and the world. He denies
global warming, as do the rest of the Trump cabal, despite the mountain of scientific
proof of the oncoming disaster. He is determined to turn up the heat. Burn
baby burn!
The scientists tell us that we are approaching the tipping point, beyond which
we will not be able to prevent our planet from becoming uninhabitable. It looks
like we may well destroy ourselves, but it wont be the bomb that gets us, it will be
our own human greed.
Eugene P. McNerney
