In the darkness last night, I awoke to a violent rainstorm. In my dreams, the drumming sounded ominous. Drops the size of tablespoons were falling, instead of the usual pattering cascade.
I walked to the window, and between the buildings, the sky flashed with outbreaks of lightning. Not lightning that branches down to the earth like a upended tree, but strange scribbles of lightning high in the air.
And then it all ended, suddenly.
Sometimes I have the feeling that earth is trying to purge itself with deluges of water.
Everyone seems to be opining that this election is most momentous of our lifetimes. It's the thrill of razor thin margins, and fluctuating polls. The constantly invoked specter of terrorism, the grim realities of an erupting Iraq, the energetic lies that the Bush administration continues to perpetuate, and the whispered references to Armageddon.
But the very fate of the earth may hang in the balance.
President Bush has chosen to entirely ignore the warnings about global warming. For a decade, right wing industry experts have exerted a relentless campaign to discredit what most climate scientists know to be true, that emissions from carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are changing the very equations on which life depends.
A new report on the Arctic commissioned by eight nations and conducted by over 300 scientists says we are "now experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate change on Earth. Over the next 100 years, climate change is expected to accelerate, contributing to major physical, ecological, social and economic changes, many of which have already begun."
Arctic Perils Seen in Warming
The State Department, which reviewed the report, declined to comment.
On PBS, Bill Moyers delivered a searing indictment of Bush's misleadership. Moyers alone seems to have both the moral authority and the sheer courage to lay it on the line.
But for once, New York Times columnist Kristof comes close.
Taking Bush At His Word
We can change course. There's still time.