One day last week, I had an amazing experience. I’d go so far as to say it was darn near magical.
I was driving through Baltimore about midday on its tangle of interstate highways in rather poor driving conditions. The day was grey with rain and fog, and cars were throwing up spray into the air making visibility difficult.
I wasn’t having much fun as I entered the long Harbor Tunnel under the Patapsco River. As I came to the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel and emerged into the day again, I found a completely different world. Gone were the rain and dark overcast sky. Instead, the sun was shining brilliantly in a sky turned gorgeously blue, filled with white, wispy clouds. The difference was remarkable and completely unexpected, and I found myself yelling with excitement at what I was seeing.
But that’s not all. As I left the tunnel behind, I happened to glance to my right and, oh my, am I glad I did. Otherwise I might have missed the most spectacular rainbow of all time, at least of my all time.
It was huge, its ends emerging from the buildings on the ground to lift majestically above the city. It was three dimensional, thick with the richest, most saturated colors. It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime vision and, unfortunately, a short lived one as the road turned away and I was forced to leave the rainbow behind.
Now, I understand the physics behind rainbows, but despite that, it was a mystical, magical few moments, and I felt like I had been touched by something beyond my understanding, something extraordinary. The fact is our world is filled with these extraordinary moments where it’s possible to connect to the earth and its many wonders.
But while I’m dwelling on those wonders, I can’t help but notice how things are changing in our natural world and not for the better. It’s Australia I’m thinking about right now, its raging bush fires and the suffering of its people and wildlife.
Though good reporting on the deadly fires in Australia can be found, it’s usually relegated to back pages or somewhere below the headlines screaming about our president’s latest outrage. I credit the Gazette for putting Australia on the front page, but right now the top headline isn’t even impeachment, it’s the story of our impeached president ordering the assassination in Iraq of a high ranking and, apparently, beloved Iranian general.
Both stories are important and terrifying, both with the potential to destroy the planet as we know it. On the one hand, there is all-out war with Iran and its proxies and allies, with the potential for nuclear conflagration, and on the other hand, there’s climate change induced destruction — massive wild fires and storms, rising sea levels and flooding, drought-induced mass food and water shortages and war over limited resources.
The assassination was clearly decided with little or no thought to the possible deadly consequences. But that seems to be the operating principle of this administration — don’t think, just do. In the few days since the killing, the chance of all-out war with Iran has risen to unprecedented heights. There is no doubt that Iran will retaliate in some form with possible attacks on U.S. military personnel, embassies, cyberattacks on our digital infrastructure, and/or attacks on American soil. There’s no turning back now, the deed is done and payback is coming.
It has been suggested, and I totally agree, that Trump, in his angst over his potential firing, decided to change the subject from impeachment to war with Iran. No one in their right mind would do such a thing, would they? Of course not, but then again, does our president have a right mind?
Instead of threatening Democrats over impeachment, the president is now making ever more unhinged, lawless threats against the Iranians, as if that will stop the deadly reprisals that are surely coming. At what point will his party see the extreme danger he is to all life on this planet? What on earth will it take?
Meanwhile, there sits Australia, burning from sea to sea, with record-breaking high temperatures made more dangerous by high winds and extremely dry conditions. Nearly 15 million acres of land have burned since the fires began in September, with at least 20 people dead, 28 missing and some 1,500 homes destroyed.
Ecologists at the University of Sydney estimate that 480 million animals may have perished in the conflagrations. And there appears to be no end in sight as the Australian summer is barely one month in.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been taking a lot of heat for his lack of action since the fires began. People are angry and well they should be. It seems that Australian firefighting chiefs had been trying to meet with the prime minister since April, worried that a crisis was coming, but they were constantly rebuffed. According to one, they had been locked out of discussions and were not allowed to mention climate change. Sound familiar?
Morrison, like Trump, is a climate change denier. To prove my point, his government has recently approved the construction of what may be the world’s largest coal mine, with the intention to export coal to India. Coal, by the way, is the dirtiest of fossil fuels.
In case you don’t know, Australia is the world’s second largest coal exporter. It is also one of the world’s biggest per capita greenhouse gas emitters. Despite the raging fires there and scientific research regarding greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, the prime minister is quoted as saying he will not make reckless cuts to the coal industry. So there you have it, let it burn, baby, burn.
Oh, where is my rainbow now, just when I need it? But wait, I just realized that that experience is still with me. I can still see it, in my mind’s eye, arching vividly across the sky. I can even feel the joy it brought me. I wish the Australian people could have shared that vision, but there are surely no rainbows there today.
Karen Gardner of Haydenville, can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.