Writer Dave Donelson left his successful business career in 1999 to become a full-time freelance writer. In 2020 he both completed a memoir of his life growing up (entitled Fathers: A Memoir) and began a daily journal where he posts his thoughts, observations, and insights each day. Titled “The Journal of My Seventieth Year: A Memoir In Real Time,” the first volume of this daily diary is available for purchase on Amazon as is the second volume. We are pleased to share with agebuzz readers select individual posts from Dave’s journal, as well as his photography that accompanies the journal entries. Below is his latest selection for us.
“Climate change” doesn’t sound an alarm. The phrase is benign. Our “climate” is just something that requires air conditioning or umbrellas. And “change” is something that happens slowly, even if irrevocably, a simple movement from one state of being to another. We change our underwear. We change our breakfast cereal. How can we be alarmed, much less take decisive action, against something like a hole in our socks? The words “climate change” move us about as strongly as “Twinkle twinkle little star.”
Sophisticated, highly-educated environmentalists seek to move us to action by pointing to incomprehensible charts and parsing the difference between “weather” and “climate.” They persuade no one other than each other that some actions must be taken someday, somewhere, somehow, by someone.
Their well-informed plea crumbles under the deniers’ simple question: “Do you want to save the planet tomorrow or save your job today?” It’s a false dichotomy, but choosing which message to believe is like deciding between a mayonnaise-on-white bread sandwich and a sizzling-from-the-grill rib eye steak.
If we are going to save the world- literally- we must have a message that punches the gut. Wildfires have turned the West Coast into blackened ruin. Six hurricanes are lined up to roar across the Atlantic to drown the Gulf States. Thousands of lives will be lost and ruined today, not tomorrow, by our rape of the environment. The words we use should reflect urgency and resound with imminent disaster.
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