Lemmings leap off cliffs into the sea when they exceed the carrying capacity of their life-sustaining habitat. That is a good thing; it increases the chance of species survival given that habitat is harder to replace than individual lemmings.
We advanced humans on the other hand don’t recognize our habitat limitations and may well take our habitat over the cliff with us. But we are creative with our very sophisticated mental gymnastics. We can conjure up denial as a substitute for reality.
As climate change becomes tangible to the casual observer we don’t need a weatherman to know the climate blows and is getting worse. While we remain high-centered on debating what percentage is natural versus man-made we fail to do things we know could help.
We know burning fossil fuels exacerbates the greenhouse effect. Even some of our leaders have caught up to that fact. However, it will take some self-sacrifice to reduce burning fuel due to our habitual dependence. Ongoing denial and self-indulgence are driving us to the cliff. Future generations will look back and wonder what, or if, we were thinking.
But I imagine they will give us Bitterrooters extra style points for facing the challenge with humor by building a race track to watch cars burn fuel driving fast in small circles for fun.
Sometimes you gotta laugh.
Larry Campbell
Darby