The World is NOT Coming to an End

I have bad news for my right-wing
Christian friends.

The rapture is not upon us. Jesus
Christ is not coming down to Earth, any time soon, to kick your silly
asses up to eternal bliss while leaving the rest of us to damnation.
Jesus Christ is not a small-minded bigot like you are.

I also have some bad news for my
left-wing friends.

Global warming does not mean the world
is about to become inhabitable. OK, maybe you won’t survive. I won’t.
Maybe most people won’t. Maybe civilization won’t.

But Earth will survive. Mother Earth is
suffering a mild fever in order to rid itself of an infection created by us. The precipitate cause is an excess of carbon dioxide in the air.
But in time – a relatively short time to Mother Earth – the world
will bloom again. Maybe the ca-caroaches will rule it. Maybe the
apes. But global warming is a short-term phenomenon. In the long run,
life survives.

Unfortunately this is the kind of talk
you get as a Political Crisis comes over America. This is how your
parents reacted to the 1960s, when you all went off to smoke dope and
listen to the Grateful Dead. This kind of feeling was well-covered by
Russell Crowe recently in the film Cinderella Man.

Yes, there will be casualties. There
always are. Yes, it’s possible you will be among them. So may I. But
this is not hors’ categorie.

This is, in fact, a fabulous time to be
alive.

We live longer than ever before. We
have more creature comforts than our grandparents dreamt of. We are
the dream the visitors to the 1939 World’s Fair imagined. To the
people of Washington’s time, or Lincoln’s, the way we live today is
nothing less than magic.

So get off your ass and start fighting
for this world. Start fighting for this medium, and for all the gains
mankind has made in the 20^th century.

Because it’s worth it.