ROTHENBURGER: We’re all doomed and that’s the sad, absolute truth

“All this is entirely consistent with predictions and repeated warnings. The only surprise is the speed of the change. Climate change is here, it is terrifying and it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”

As we swelter under the heat dome, choke on the foul air of the forest fires and watch our communities flooded or torn apart by storms the likes of which we’ve never seen before, we desperately look around for solutions.

Guterres believes we can still save the planet. I’m not nearly as confident. Maybe we could, temporarily, but will we put up with the inconvenience?

Even if we wanted to, too many things are out of our control in the long run. The fires will get worse. Six years ago, I pondered whether that summer would be our last. I didn’t seriously suggest the end was nigh but the forests were aflame and the massive 27,000-hectare Louis Creek fire in 2003 was still vivid in our memories. Since then, many wildfires have far eclipsed it in size. Fort McMurray burned, Lytton was leveled and other communities are routinely threatened. Fire came to the very edge of Juniper. Even if criminals and careless idiots stopped setting them, Mother Nature will have her way with us and, right now, she’s pissed off.

We cling to fossil fuels that stoke out-of-control climate change and Mom Nature fights back with wind and lightning to burn down the forests.

This hope that if we can stop using fossil fuels and run everything with electricity, everything will be fine, is a myth. First of all, we can’t make the change fast enough, and the day we consume the last drop of oil is the day we begin dying. And it won’t take long.

It’s not just about the fuel we use to run the cars and trucks and ships and planes that deliver the goods we need to sustain us. We use oil for tires, ballpoint pens, antiseptics, deodorant, basketballs, solvents, ink, umbrellas, shampoo, antifreeze, heart valves, refrigerators, dentures and thousands upon thousands of other things in everyday life.

And those electric vehicles that are supposed to save us? Yes, we now have electric pickup trucks — not just cars and SUVS — and electric commercial trucks, ships and airplanes aren’t far off. But there’s a finite amount of lithium and nickel for the batteries and when we run out of those, then what?

You know the answer.

We have so many other strikes against us. Population will outrun our ability to feed, clothe, shelter and keep everyone warm or cool. There will be another ice age. The Sun will, eventually, burn itself out and cast the Earth into eternal darkness. That’s what stars do — they burn brightly for a few million years and then die. (Another theory is that the Sun will expand into a ‘red giant’ star and vaporize the Earth.)

We won’t be around that long anyway. Putin has his finger on the nuclear button. So did Trump — we survived him and maybe we’ll survive Putin but, sooner or later, a maniac will come along who can’t resist seeing what happens when that button is pushed.

Or, a giant asteroid will slam into us and wipe out all life on the planet. If that doesn’t do it, the next virus might; we might not find a vaccine for it and have to watch helplessly as it kills us all, slowly. Meanwhile, of course, we’re killing the planet with plastic.

When I wrote about the end of days six years ago I noted that the Doomsday Clock — kept by scientists who calculate when global catastrophe will arrive — was officially at two and a half minutes to midnight.

When I entered high school, the clock was at 12 minutes to midnight. When I left, the cushion had shrunk to seven minutes.

Today, that clock is 90 seconds away from midnight. Things are definitely heading in the wrong direction. Ever since Nostradamus, doomsdayers regularly predict the end. This year, there’s a prediction that unfriendly aliens will arrive determined to destroy us all.

I don’t have a date for the end of days, but logic says it’s inevitable. Whenever I bring up the doomsday scenario in a social situation, people usually find they have an appointment to get to or a phone call they must make. It’s deadly at parties. People can’t imagine there being no record of our very existence and would rather not think about it. It’s kind of like trying to wrap your mind around the concept of a never-ending universe, defining time or imagining what it’s like when we die.

But, it’s true. We’re doomed. I guess the lesson here is that we all have to do our best with the time we’ve got left, and make it last as long as we can. Have a great rest of your day.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER: We’re all doomed and that’s the sad, absolute truth

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