Climate Change Change?

After all of the global climate change protests held this past Friday, am I more optimistic about the future of this planet?

No, I'm not.

Because the truth of the matter is that old habits die hard and new movements die quickly, as Occupy Wall Street in the earlier part of this decade (which, thankfully, is ending very soon) proved.  The protests were held primarily by teenagers, who, owing to their age, are too young to vote, and there simply aren't enough people who are old enough to vote for whom climate change is a top priority, If there were, Jay Inslee's presidential campaign here in the United States wouldn't have failed and he'd be the front runner.

It is also because of the United States, the world's most powerful nation and the world's greatest environmental outlaw (there, I said it!), the only country that doesn't recognize the Paris Agreement and the only country run by a climate-change denier - Charles Koch.  But Donald Trump happens to agree with the last surviving Koch brother on the subject, which is why he's been working overtime - or having his aides due the work for him while he plays golf - to roll back environmental regulations and make sure that no state or private corporation can do anything to fight the climate crisis.  His efforts to keep fuel economy standards low helps the profits of oil companies more than even the profits of automakers, many of whom actually support the since-rescinded Obama-era fuel economy regulations and are ready to go ahead with higher standards that California has pursued - including Ford, which is currently pushing SUVs and crossovers in its home market.  

Trump's absence from the climate conference the United Nations is holding this week makes it clear that the U.S. Government, the same government I was taught revere when I was in first grade (Nixon was President then!), is on record as refusing to do anything about the planet's health.  The U.S. corporations who will be represented at the conference only make it even more embarrassing that this country relies on profiteering capitalists more than our elected representatives (including Democrats - remember how Dianne Feinstein tried to blow off young climate activists in her Senate office this past winter?) to do the right thing.

But it's not just the American government, and it's not just lunkheaded American consumers buying Chevrolet Suburbans and eating steak every other night.  It's the French objecting to fuel taxes the encourage them to drive less.  It's the Australians voting in a more conservative government that is more skeptical of climate change.  It's the Chinese still using too much coal.  Oh, sure, the media are taking climate change more seriously.  MSNBC devoted a whole week to climate change stories.  But who cares when America's number one cable news channel is Fox News?

As the old MySpace marital status said, I don't want kids.  This is why.  One of them might even grow up to be a climate change denier.