Cover image taken during the day on September 9th, 2020 in Half Moon Bay, CA. [1]
As tragedy after tragedy flash across the headlines of the news, I find myself stuck in a paralysis. The statement “it is 2020″ and its variants “this is 2020″ and “it’s 2020 after all” all come to mind. For many of us, 2020 has become synonymous with the word crisis taken to an absurdist extreme. It feels like an absurd amount of time has passed since January 1st, or rather that an absurd amount of absurd things have happened. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown and restrictions. The Australian Wildfires, the Impeachment and resultant Acquittal of President Donald Trump, the tragic passing of Kobe Bryant, the conviction of Harvey Weinstein, the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin and subsequent worldwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism, multiple hurricanes striking the Southern US at the same time (Marco and Laura), and now the most destructive fire season in CA in modern history combined with record-breaking heat waves.
There is probably enough to unpack there that it would take several lifetimes to get through it all in detail. What strikes me in a lot of these occurrences, is not only the current of tragedy and crisis present, but the feeling of predictability that comes along with it. The murder of George Floyd was horrific, and I do not feel it is my place to speak in detail on this platform about the surrounding issues and potential solutions. There are far more capable and knowledgeable voices to listen to, particularly those in the Black community, and I encourage you to seek out and listen to them. However, one can clearly see that there are surrounding issues, as is evident in the messages at protests. As one protestor put it: “This is not about one man, this is about structural racism in a country built on black slavery.” [2]
The murder does not stand alone; it stands embedded in a historical and contemporary sea of violence, police brutality, and systemic racism. And these issues and their potential solutions are worthy of our time, attention, and effort.
It is with this example that I encourage you to examine, with a similar lens of contextualization, the other issues that have plagued 2020. No event is an island. Contextualize everything.
Two of the other major problems have been that of severe weather in the form of hurricanes, forest fires, violent storms, and unprecedented heat waves, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It really seems like 2020 has been a crazy year in terms of weather! Why have we had so many hurricanes, heat waves, and forest fires?”
The totality of climate change is so immense at this point that this question seems rhetorical at best and tone-deaf at worst. It has reached the point where we don’t really even need scientists to tell us anymore. Hell, if you live in California you probably don’t even need to read the news. All you need to do is look out a window.
All following images are taken during the day.
On September 9th 2020, as I write this piece, the skies of the Bay Area north through Oregon have turned a blood-red orange ish color. Ash rains down. The smoke from all of the various fires (multiple of which are individually some of the biggest fires in CA history) has quite literally blocked out the sun, creating an almost night-like darkness coated in red and orange glow. “It’s 2020” rings in my head again.
This unprecedented wave of severe weather does not stand alone. It was predictable, and a natural result of human-powered climate change.
And this climate change doesn’t really surprise anyone. All of us know it is going on. And yet we feel powerless to fight it. But we are only powerless as long as qe believe we are. You can start fighting back and making an impact, today.
We must make rapid changes as a society to combat climate change. These changes must be systemic and tackle both corporate contributions (the big one) and individual contributions. However, both of these start with the actions of the individual. The only way we can affect major societal change (even of corporations) is through shifting our own personal actions and views, and then subsequently using this personal shift to shift the actions of views of other individuals, and ultimately governments and corporations. The keys to the climate revolution are in your hands.
Now is the time to start caring about the environment and about climate change. It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday. It matters what you do today and tomorrow.
And I am telling you — a major way you can fight back against climate change, arguably the biggest individual change you can make on a personal level, is to cut down on your consumption of animal products. Our societal mass consumption of animal productions is destroying the planet at an absurd rate and has contributed significantly to the climate crisis. If you would like to read more about this claim, please check out my other writing piece on the blog titled 2050. Link: https://theesterostory.com/2050-how-diet-causes-catastrophe/.
The COVID 19 pandemic was also largely brought on by our societal mass consumption of animal products. Animal agriculture constituted a major factor in both the creation of and spread of the pandemic. See my piece Blame and Prevention if you would like to read more about that claim. Link: https://theesterostory.com/blame-and-prevention/.
Again I return to the phrase “it’s 2020”. While on the surface the events of this year appear as surreal isolated occurrences, they are not. Simply typecasting every disaster (of which there are many) and news-worthy event of 2020 as more “it’s 2020” material abdicates responsibility and contextual analysis of these issues. Yes, its 2020. But they didn’t just happen “because its 2020”. They happened due to a long series of precursor events and contributing factors. 2020 is not the cause. 2020 is a symptom. Help fight the causes of climate change and pandemics that are battering our world. Take a step to consume less animal products, so we don’t let 2021 and 2022 be repeats of 2020. Don’t let 2021 and 2022 be more symptoms.
It is easy to let the immensity of the problem overtake you and create a paralysis. But it is this very paralysis and inaction that stops us from tackling these issues. If you have been affected by the severe weather, fires, COVID or any number of the other crises this year or know someone who has, my heart goes out to you. We must band together and act today to create a better world.
We are already seeing the consequences of our societal actions. Help me change them.
Don’t let the paralysis of the problem overtake you, like I know it has overtaken me at various points. Act. Today. Do. Something. Whether it’s going vegetarian, vegan, simply having one meatless day a week, hell even one meatless meal a week. Trying to eat more veggies and meat substitutes. Or if it’s even just deciding to educate yourself on the issue by reading this blog post and/or my other one on the climate crisis. Or checking out a documentary such as Cowspiracy. Any step helps. You will be glad you did. There are many days of the past but there is only one today.
Don’t forget to subscribe (link in sidebar) to hear about new content and to follow our Instagram if you liked this piece 🙂
Resources Cited
[1] Picture courtesy of Martine Nelson: https://www.instagram.com/p/CE7O3aIhonVd8kJjZVMJI7cb4ZQghXefppHUOw0/?igshid=o1s8y325ghe4
[2] https://www.instagram.com/p/CA9WNOTsJb0/?igshid=10hi576zeq4a2
[4]
https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_7d390c30-eeff-11ea-a495-23430f5f3d13.amp.html
[7]
Picture courtesy of Austin Morris
Share this:
Loved reading this article.
Thanks so much, I’m so glad you liked it!! 🙂
Love your writing, Jamie! I’ve recently gone into a bit of paralysis myself and this reminded me to still keep trying, or else the status quo will never change.
Thank you Seth, glad you like it and thank you for the support! I understand — I have a bit too. It’s hard not to. The events and headlines certainly keep coming. But journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step my friend 🙂