Apres Moi La Deluge
Apres Moi La Deluge
Apres Moi La
Deluge is attributed to Louis XV of France and roughly means “After me the
Catastrophe”. Even knowing things were tough in France he had no intention of
doing anything to avoid the future catastrophe. He actually made a point of
living the good life and spending as much money as possible to have as much fun
as possible before everything went to pot. He is best known for contributing to the decline of royal
authority by bankrupting France – this led to the French Revolution in 1789, 15 years after his death. I guess
his prediction was right. So what does that have to do with all of us in the 21st
century?
Hotel Riu, Cancun where
many Canadians “flee to” during our Winter
It seems to me that we are repeating Louis XV actions of
living the good life at the expense of the future – and knowingly. You see I
have been conducting what I call “The Climate Interviews” for 2 years with
people I know well enough that they will tell me the truth about their
attitudes, their logic, emotions and what they are willing to do about the climate
crises. It turns out I could find NOBODY who was willing to make significant
lifestyle changes that would even approach what the Scientists tell us we MUST
do – to live net-zero carbon. This is NOT because of ignorance, these people
know there are things they could do – they just don’t want to. They want to,
like Louis XV, “live the good life” – the future be damned. One of them, when I
pressed the point and asked them about their kids said this: “It sucks to be
you.”. Yikes. That was a year ago. It
traumatized me and I stopped the interviews and started learning about
Ecological Grief as it seemed that I might be starting to suffer from it. But
that topic is for another day.
Bahamas say final death toll will be staggering as
thousands are missing after Hurricane Dorian
Last night as we were talking about the day at the potluck
dinner table with some friends – among them an older lady who said she had been
crying watching the TV as she saw images of destruction in the Bahamas and
heard that it was possible that thousands were dead. My wife and I agreed that it
was very, very sad, but my wife added the fact that ALL OF US were culpable in
that our high CO2 lifestyle was the reason that the winds were so strong – 360 km/hr! The older guest asked what she could do and given the fact that she does
not drive or fly we said the only thing she could really do was to stop eating
red meat and instead only eat white meat like chicken or fish.
That stopped her in her tracks. She said: “Don’t you like the
spaghetti sauce I made for dinner? It was some ground beef meatballs in it?
What about the roast I have in the freezer for some guests who are coming soon –
do you want me to throw it away? That’s a ridiculous suggestion!” She then went
to accuse us of pointing out her faults and making her look stupid. Oh dear. We
had to cover our tracks [she is over 80] and say lots of great things about her
cooking. My wife tried later to make the point that if she was sad about all
the death in destruction in the Bahamas perhaps that could motivate her to
change her lifestyle a tiny bit [by not eating read meat] so that she knew she
had ‘done her bit’ to reduce the suffering of people around the world suffering
from climate change. No luck.
So, there you have it folks; a tale of myopia and
self-centredness from 1760 repeated in today by many, many people. So, given
that
“You repay all people according to their deeds.” Psalm 62
I can only imagine that the forces of History and Nature will
bring down justice upon us as they did with the French Revolution but now in
the form of environmental destruction. Of course there will be a resultant
breakdown of nation states with the accompanying mass suffering of people that
will dwarf what is now happening in the Bahamas. So, put on your seat belts, be
ready for a wild ride and do what you can bring your carbon footprint to zero.
Given that there is now an election try to VOTE for whoever you think will try
to avoid what happened to France in the past and the Bahamas today.
posted by Gordon @ 05:07
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