Hellooooo! Well, it's been a good long while since I posted to this well-intentioned new blog where I had hoped to highlight climate and health issues, both global and personal. But who knew there would be NOTHING to write about?!?!?
I mean, let's see. Yes, there is a raging coronavirus pandemic, which we lovingly call Covid-19 since it started in 2019, but here we are in the waning months of 2020 and it's still here! We've all grown accustomed to it and now we are FINE!
The current president and his family and 25+ other administration officials recently caught the devil virus, but the Dear Leader came out of it declaring he felt better than he had in 20 years and struck a dramatic pose on the Truman Balcony, dictator style, saluting the helicopter that had just flown him "home" from a four-day, all (taxpayer) expense paid stay at Walter Reed Medical Center, where he got the best possible care from top-notch doctors and a nice little cocktail of expensive and experimental drugs to help him feel oh so much better. I don't know if his happy ending holds true for the other 8 million U.S. citizens who have contracted Covid-19 so far -- some of whom have been very, very ill and continue to have adverse health effects. Those folks are now called Covid Long Haulers. And then there are the 217,867 deaths to date -- with numbers rising daily of newly confirmed cases, so....maybe not a Fountain of Youth?
But as I say, we all are dealing with this in a super positive, empathetic way and looking out for each other. Well, except those who refuse to wear masks or avoid crowds or stay away from vulnerable others because by god, it is their RIGHT to potentially infect whomever they damn well please. They call mask-wearers "sheep" for going along with public health recommendations. Some of these fine folk showed up on some state capital steps, armed with long guns, declaring that they will not comply with mask mandates and threatening elected officials who try to implement such a plan. Land of the free. Some people believe in science and wear masks and keep their distance from others; some don't. Que sera sera, right?
The whole country was hunkered down for awhile in the spring, as businesses shuttered while we tried to "flatten the curve" so new cases would level off and not overwhelm the health care system. We did pretty well, until several states (with the current Administration's urging) opened things up too soon, going back to "normal" long before the virus was under control. I think they must have misunderstood that a flatter curve didn't mean the virus had disappeared like magic (as the current president promised), only that we were barely holding steady on keeping hospitalizations even. So....some pretty spiky spikes occurred with lots of new cases and people still jammed together at beaches and in bars to celebrate all the summer holidays. And the pandemic raged. Party on, dude!!!
It's OK. I mean many of us older folks, and those with underlying health conditions, really LIKE staying locked in our homes to avoid the ICU/ventilator/death dance. We super enjoy being isolated from friends, outings, routines, families. Those gatherings were not really that important to us, and so what if the grandkids are growing and changing every day, with no Grandma/Grandpa hugs and only the occasional glitchy Zoom meet-up to keep the connection going? It's FINE!
On the climate change front, also, no problem. There were a few fires across the Western United States, burning 11,593,882 acres, destroying 10,245 structures. Whatever. Heat waves and drought may have contributed. Maybe we are having longer and hotter fire seasons.
And where there's fire, there's smoke, right? So who was surprised when whole regions, including our town, were shrouded in a miasma of yellow/gray smoke, officially "Unhealthy" for being outdoors in it? On what should have been blue sky sunny days, we closed doors and windows and tried to find fresh air to breath for about 10 days, but we were already locked in due to the Covid thing, so not so bad.
Scientists are sounding climate change alarm bells, but others don't "believe" in climate change (or gravity?). Our current president blames lax forest management practices and the unwillingness to "rake" the forest floor of debris that catches on fire. He recently denied emergency funding to California for disaster relief due to the worst wildfire destruction in, well, ever. The worst. So, la-di-da. Get out your rakes!
On the other coast, hurricanes seemed to be happily making landfall in record numbers too. Warm ocean waters create goofball conditions all the way up in the sky and suddenly there is wind and rain and storm surges of record proportions. The worst part of all that is running out of names! It used to be that only female names were used (oh, yes, the fury of the female!), but some years ago they also added male names to list. This year, all of the 21 names designated for storms are already used up and there are still hurricanes forming so they've taken to naming storms for the Greek Alphabet: the most recent, "Alpha". Win-win I say. It's time we all learned a little Greek!
So, yes, I've neglected this blog, but as you can see, it's been pretty quiet on the health and climate front anyway. I'll try to come back here periodically if anything of note occurs. Otherwise, enjoy the upcoming fall and winter holidays. I hear the office party is making a comeback!
Here's to health, for ourselves and our planet...©
Photo Credit: www.pixabay.com
Covid Stats Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
Wildfire Stats Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Western_United_States_wildfire_season
UPDATE: The current president now says he'll shoot some cash toward California after all.
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