Summary:
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The former British monarch is now, of course, no longer a part of our world or that news cycle.
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Regardless of whether Putin ever uses those “tactical” nuclear weapons, in a sense, he has already nuked this world in his own particularly despicable way.
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Gas prices have been skyrocketing globally, militaries are burning more fossil fuels than ever, and little attention has been given to the planet’s warming.
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If you genuinely wanted to write a collective obituary for us, the invasion of Ukraine at a time when the world was already starting to heat up could be an excellent place to start.
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The point is: Should we elderly people start considering humanity’s obituaries after all these tens of thousands of years—a long, long time for us but not for planet Earth?
Oddly enough, I have found obituaries fascinating to read since I was a young child. But despite that, I never gave it much thought throughout the years. I’m not sure if it stemmed from a subliminal obsession with death and the end of everything or curiosity about the completeness (partiality, brokenness) of a person’s life. But here’s the strange thing: throughout all that time, I never really gave my obituary any attention. Perhaps this was due to the allure of youth or, subsequently, a lingering perception of youth or, at the very least, agelessness. Like so many of us, I could not envision my death when I was younger. It felt curiously impossible, contrary to all logic.
At the age of 78, I find that obituaries are once more on my mind—and not just because people I knew are appearing in them far too frequently these days or for that other all-too-obvious reason, which I barely need to explain here. You might be amazed at how many obituaries appear if you type my last name or yours into a search engine. In actuality, Engelhardt’s have been passing away for centuries.
The only obituary you can’t have is your own unless you elect to write it yourself or you’re well-known enough to be interviewed by a newspaper obit writer while you’re still alive as one of the “pre-dead.” Of course, for the most notable among us, such articles, as at The New York Times, are prepared and written far in advance because the one thing we do know—whether we consider it or not, accept it or not—is that we will all indeed die.
Nuclear Summer or a Nuclear Winter Caused by Climate Change?
Let’s not hold back. The only term that comes to me right now is crazy, at least in my thinking. And no, I’m not even considering Donald Trump or the irrational band of election sceptics, QAnon conspiracy theorists, and white nationalists who have taken over the Republican Party and may soon sweep to triumph, at least in the House of Representatives. And no, I’m not thinking about the Trumpist-leaning Supreme Court, which could lead us even further down the path to autocracy or, at the very least, an always-Republican-controlled mania-democracy (perhaps with the help of too many people on November 8th).
Tens of thousands of years have passed since we left our Neanderthal relatives past, and thousands of years have passed since we first started herding other animals, cultivating crops, and arming ourselves to the teeth. We learned a great deal in all those ages, both positive and negative. But looking back, if anyone bothers (given our current situation), the most fantastic thing would be that we found two distinct methods to ruin ourselves, once rather purposefully and once without even realising it at the time. Given the Elizabethan moment that just recently passed and left so many of us watching a “news” spectacle that was her obituary and nothing else but that for what seemed like ever and a day, believe me when I say that I’m using that word with caution. The former British monarch is now, of course, no longer a part of our world or that news cycle. There is no sign of her remains. Despite Donald Trump, it seems like nothing lasts for very long nowadays. And she may turn out to be the final queen if things worsen on our planet, which I wouldn’t bet against Truss (funny joke).
As I’m sure you already know, these two discoveries are nuclear weapons and climate change. Each of these ought to be on everyone’s mind for reasons that are almost too obvious to list. Recently, our president discussed the idea that we could experience “Armageddon” (his word, not mine) for the first time since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis in private conversations with Democratic Party contributors. That would be because Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and his threat to use nuclear weapons for the first time since the United States destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki to finish World War II (“this is not a bluff,” he said).
Regardless of whether Putin ever uses those “tactical” nuclear weapons, in a sense, he has already nuked this world in his own particularly despicable way. Energy politics have been pushed in the worst possible direction by his decision to invade Ukraine and, after an eight-month debacle (which included the particularly deadly occupation of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant), only increase the level of destruction. Gas prices have been skyrocketing globally, militaries are burning more fossil fuels than ever, and little attention has been given to the planet’s warming. The idea of the significant powers working together to do anything about it now seems like a fantasy from some other universe. Some desperate European countries have already returned to coal power.
Present problem
It doesn’t matter that unprecedented flooding of one-third of Pakistan was caused by a combination of fearsome monsoons and growing glacial melt; that much of the northern hemisphere experienced record heat and drought last summer; that Hurricane Ian only recently devastated parts of Florida in a manner that shouldn’t have been, but given where we’re going, won’t be a once-in-500-year fashion; or that a mainstream website like Politico can now refer to our country as And that’s just the beginning of a far longer list of climatic disasters. The enormous fossil fuel corporations continue to exist on a different planet from the rest of us, which I almost forgot to add. Call it the land of profit.
Returning to the topic of obituaries, you could have, of course, written one for the roughly one billion marine animals that perished last summer as a result of a heat wave that set a record along Canada’s Pacific coast or another based on the most recent study that found that, since 1970, the population of fresh-water species on this planet has decreased by an astounding 83 percent. If you’re writing an obituary and considering the living, don’t forget about the emperor penguin. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, that iconic animal faces extinction by the end of this century due to the continued loss of the sea ice it needs to survive on a rapidly warming planet.
Give Vlad all the credit, then. His invasion of Ukraine brought back into focus the nuclear weapons that are our alternative means of self-destruction. In other words, even though his war raises the number of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, he’s helped divert our attention from climate change at the worst time conceivable (so far). Congratulations, Mr President!
You won’t be surprised to find that only 26 of the 193 countries pledged in 2021 to increase their efforts to combat climate change have yet, according to a recent United Nations study (and even some of those in an anything but impressive fashion). In other words, our future will be extremely hot if we ever reach there. The Earth is currently on course to rise by 2.1 to 2.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, rather than the 1.5 degrees Celsius the 2015 Paris climate agreement set as the maximum temperature.
The powers that be were paying too little attention to how we could endanger ourselves (and so many other species) by overheating the globe even before the Ukraine war broke out. Even worse, the critical Cold War players were already “modernising” their nuclear arsenals, with the US spending more than a trillion dollars on this over the next few decades. The LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile will be built with just $100 billion of that because it will be used to guard hell on earth. China, the planet’s emerging power, is attempting to catch up. And now that a war is taking place in Europe, “dirty bombs” and, even worse, weapons seem to be returning to the historical stage.
I believe that this is the most bizarre thing of all. We now understand that we can bring about a truly terrible future on our planet, something that humanity once reserved for the gods. We already have the means to bring about a “nuclear winter” (in which up to five billion people may starve to death) or, using greenhouse gases, to cook this planet permanently through, to coin a new phrase, a nuclear summer brought on by climate change.
And that information should have already been game-changing.
Despite the Greta Thunberg’s of the globe, there are currently no noteworthy alternatives to her, such as 350.org or the Sunrise Movement, when it comes to nuclear weapons. Worse still, despite the burgeoning green movement, few people in positions of power, whether at the national or corporate levels, appear alarmed by the reality that we are already making Earth a more uninhabitable place. And that ought to shock us all.
A Supreme Obit?
Embrace humanity. We don’t seem to recognise any boundaries—not even those of our existence—when it comes to our impulse to destroy. If you genuinely wanted to write a collective obituary for us, the invasion of Ukraine at a time when the world was already starting to heat up could be an excellent place to start. Don’t you think that makes you want to start writing obituaries for everyone who has already passed away on a planet where the concept of mass killings themselves might take on new significance in the future, not just for us individually?
And in that situation, if you want to gauge the level of insanity at the time, consider this: In the upcoming midterm elections in this country, a political party controlled mainly by that supreme narcissism Donald Trump, the Me-Man of history, has a good chance of winning one or both houses of Congress and even the president once more in 2024. That would undoubtedly contribute to the future hell powered by fossil fuels, given that the United States is one of the planet’s two largest producers of greenhouse gases. The Donald, like his authoritarian allies worldwide, may be the supreme deity when it comes to our destruction in the future, not to mention the end of countless other beings on our globe. Consider him and his group as possibly the (un)civilized world’s pinnacle, to use a cliché.
The point is: Should we elderly people start considering humanity’s obituaries after all these tens of thousands of years—a long, long time for us but not for planet Earth? (“He was born on July 20, 1944, in New York City, on a planet consumed in conflict.”) “Born in a cave with their Denisovan and Neanderthal cousins…”
Everything does, of course, come to an end, but it doesn’t have to. My demise is inevitable, but humanities should be far less so. Whether or not that turns out to be true is up to us. Who will have the last say in all of this is the obvious question?
Analysis by: Advocacy Unified Network
