"Hard coral walls ... [reduce] wave energy by 97 percent, protecting Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Key West from storm surge."
Trump didn't see fit to attend or send an official delegation to the COP30 climate change conference in Brazil, meeting until November 20. Governor Gavin Newsom of California has attended in an unofficial capacity, but his hands are tied, as he can't really speak for the US.
You'd think Trump would be interested as someone with an expensive residence on the coast of Florida.
Apparently not.
But I bet he'd be first in line to collect federal funds for storm / surge damage.
When those Floridians who sat back and watched the destruction of the coral reef begin to migrate North, should we lock them up and send them to prisons in Texas? It's not nice to fool or harm Mother Nature but it is one thing to cut down a tree for a better view, quite another to participate in the destruction of the once beautiful coral reefs. While we're at it, let's add the disregard for the Everglades Noem, Desantis, et al had in building the cutely named Alligator Alcatraz. If hell is our worst fears, then those who built that prison will be terrorized by tropical reptiles and insects for eternity. God bless 'em. Buh-bye.
MAGA sadism evidently extends to all living things.
As psychiatrist and theologian M. Scott Peck examined in his book People of the Lie, the signature of “evil” in human religion and myth is the cunning Lie, when intentional malice and harm to others are framed as reasonable or even righteous.
He observes what is biblically “good” is rooted in truth and respect for life, not deception and manipulation.
The most repeated commandment in the Torah is to be kind to the stranger; it is a mandate based on empathy: “for you were strangers in Egypt”. Jesus embraced the vulnerable - poor, sick, outcasts, women - and called out the arrogance and abuses of the rich and powerful. We are commanded to pursue justice especially for the powerless.
The MAGAverse seems to be populated with “people of the lie”. They display religious emblems and proclaim their allegiance to scripture yet with every act of cruelty and contempt for human rights and the gifts of nature defy what Jesus and the prophets stood for. The rule of law serving the ideal of equal justice under law is all but a joke to MAGA loyalists.
Humans have long shared an instinct for what is “good” and “evil”, as shown in religion, myth and stories. MAGA actions fit the criteria of one more than the other.
People …start looking for land and build sustainable compounds. No more McMansions. Having lived in several communes it takes a greater effort and each family must participate somehow . Some can afford to buy, some can work harder it all has a value and someone can keep ‘the books’. Many people moved back to live with the land and improve it. I don’t think the devastation wrought can be fixed soon enough to avoid catastrophic consequences but it can be done eventually.
Today we split and stacked wood in the empty shed. There’s another shed which will be burned first as this needs to dry more. Build ecologically regardless ,south side gets the most windows , raise your own food best you can. We’re old now , lived this way for a long time , and still healthy.
Giving great thanks for Mary pointing out ‘what is’, and where it’s headed…smarten up , folks…Vote. Live sustainably best you can. Love your neighbor. Get educated , there’s a wealth of info out there to help. It’s going to be a rough ride to straighten out this mess which when the cloaks of deception fall away the acceleration of the last year will prove staggering. Especially for the people dependent on ‘the system’.
Thank you for your writing and research. What a gut punch… as you write — “Down off Key Largo, researcher Katey Lesneski watched a reef that had taken centuries to grow turn ghost white in real time. “I was crying underwater into my mask,” she said. Imagine weeping into an ocean that’s too warm to notice.” … The devastation is unreal and immense. Thousands of years, coral reef existing but by humanities sheer ignorance and greed wiped out in decades. Speechless, tearing up and heartbreaking…
Then as you wrote — “Hard coral walls that reduced wave energy by 97%, protecting Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Key West from storm surge. Without them, every hurricane’s punch will land harder and farther inland.”
Will admit looked up the distances of Miami and Fort Lauderdale to Mar-a-Lago.
FYI — The distance between Fort Lauderdale and Mar-a-Lago is 42 to 44 miles. The distance between Miami and Mar-a-Lago is 71 miles. Mar-a-Lago sits about 14 feet above sea level, but the west side of the estate, next to the inter coastal waterway lies at a lower elevation and will indeed be vulnerable to rising sea levels.
Mahatma Gandhi is famous for this quote: "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”
And as widely recognized a quote of Creed Native American tribe, “Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”
When coral reefs die, it signifies a catastrophic loss of marine biodiversity, a threat to global food security for over 500+ million people, a major economic blow to coastal communities, and a loss of natural coastal protection.
Currently we have seated in the Oval Office who expounds the use of fossil fuels in saying “drill baby drill” and uses the words “clean coal” all the while negates renewable energy sources like wind and solar that would diminish the effects of climate change. Ludicrous and insane..
Sad bit of academic detail. Some paleontologists have said that we were not in a mass extinction, or as they call it, an extinction event. The reason, they said, was that the technical definition for an extinction event was the disappearance of reefs from the fossil record during the event and often for millions of years thereafter.
Well, the reefs are disappearing, so we're entering an extinction event. If we deflate civilization fast enough, it won't be a mass extinction. On a seemingly unrelated note, I'm at peace with the global evidence that human birth rates are dropping below replacement. We need to keep them down, for everything's sake. And we need to treasure the children and grandchildren we do have. Sigh.
I teared up reading about the diver crying while in her mask and watching the extinction of coral.
Great piece and I look forward to what else you have to say.
20 years ago I told some lifelong republicans that if denying Climate Change, when they knew it was real, was part of their political survival something was ghastly about their party.
"Hard coral walls ... [reduce] wave energy by 97 percent, protecting Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Key West from storm surge."
Trump didn't see fit to attend or send an official delegation to the COP30 climate change conference in Brazil, meeting until November 20. Governor Gavin Newsom of California has attended in an unofficial capacity, but his hands are tied, as he can't really speak for the US.
You'd think Trump would be interested as someone with an expensive residence on the coast of Florida.
Apparently not.
But I bet he'd be first in line to collect federal funds for storm / surge damage.
When those Floridians who sat back and watched the destruction of the coral reef begin to migrate North, should we lock them up and send them to prisons in Texas? It's not nice to fool or harm Mother Nature but it is one thing to cut down a tree for a better view, quite another to participate in the destruction of the once beautiful coral reefs. While we're at it, let's add the disregard for the Everglades Noem, Desantis, et al had in building the cutely named Alligator Alcatraz. If hell is our worst fears, then those who built that prison will be terrorized by tropical reptiles and insects for eternity. God bless 'em. Buh-bye.
Thanks Mary for keeping us informed on the rest of the story. Looking forward to your sustainability essay.
MAGA sadism evidently extends to all living things.
As psychiatrist and theologian M. Scott Peck examined in his book People of the Lie, the signature of “evil” in human religion and myth is the cunning Lie, when intentional malice and harm to others are framed as reasonable or even righteous.
He observes what is biblically “good” is rooted in truth and respect for life, not deception and manipulation.
The most repeated commandment in the Torah is to be kind to the stranger; it is a mandate based on empathy: “for you were strangers in Egypt”. Jesus embraced the vulnerable - poor, sick, outcasts, women - and called out the arrogance and abuses of the rich and powerful. We are commanded to pursue justice especially for the powerless.
The MAGAverse seems to be populated with “people of the lie”. They display religious emblems and proclaim their allegiance to scripture yet with every act of cruelty and contempt for human rights and the gifts of nature defy what Jesus and the prophets stood for. The rule of law serving the ideal of equal justice under law is all but a joke to MAGA loyalists.
Humans have long shared an instinct for what is “good” and “evil”, as shown in religion, myth and stories. MAGA actions fit the criteria of one more than the other.
How far above sea level is MAL?
15 feet, if you believe Google Earth.
I thought this also.
People …start looking for land and build sustainable compounds. No more McMansions. Having lived in several communes it takes a greater effort and each family must participate somehow . Some can afford to buy, some can work harder it all has a value and someone can keep ‘the books’. Many people moved back to live with the land and improve it. I don’t think the devastation wrought can be fixed soon enough to avoid catastrophic consequences but it can be done eventually.
Today we split and stacked wood in the empty shed. There’s another shed which will be burned first as this needs to dry more. Build ecologically regardless ,south side gets the most windows , raise your own food best you can. We’re old now , lived this way for a long time , and still healthy.
Giving great thanks for Mary pointing out ‘what is’, and where it’s headed…smarten up , folks…Vote. Live sustainably best you can. Love your neighbor. Get educated , there’s a wealth of info out there to help. It’s going to be a rough ride to straighten out this mess which when the cloaks of deception fall away the acceleration of the last year will prove staggering. Especially for the people dependent on ‘the system’.
Thank you for your writing and research. What a gut punch… as you write — “Down off Key Largo, researcher Katey Lesneski watched a reef that had taken centuries to grow turn ghost white in real time. “I was crying underwater into my mask,” she said. Imagine weeping into an ocean that’s too warm to notice.” … The devastation is unreal and immense. Thousands of years, coral reef existing but by humanities sheer ignorance and greed wiped out in decades. Speechless, tearing up and heartbreaking…
Then as you wrote — “Hard coral walls that reduced wave energy by 97%, protecting Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Key West from storm surge. Without them, every hurricane’s punch will land harder and farther inland.”
Will admit looked up the distances of Miami and Fort Lauderdale to Mar-a-Lago.
FYI — The distance between Fort Lauderdale and Mar-a-Lago is 42 to 44 miles. The distance between Miami and Mar-a-Lago is 71 miles. Mar-a-Lago sits about 14 feet above sea level, but the west side of the estate, next to the inter coastal waterway lies at a lower elevation and will indeed be vulnerable to rising sea levels.
Mahatma Gandhi is famous for this quote: "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”
And as widely recognized a quote of Creed Native American tribe, “Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”
When coral reefs die, it signifies a catastrophic loss of marine biodiversity, a threat to global food security for over 500+ million people, a major economic blow to coastal communities, and a loss of natural coastal protection.
Currently we have seated in the Oval Office who expounds the use of fossil fuels in saying “drill baby drill” and uses the words “clean coal” all the while negates renewable energy sources like wind and solar that would diminish the effects of climate change. Ludicrous and insane..
Sad bit of academic detail. Some paleontologists have said that we were not in a mass extinction, or as they call it, an extinction event. The reason, they said, was that the technical definition for an extinction event was the disappearance of reefs from the fossil record during the event and often for millions of years thereafter.
Well, the reefs are disappearing, so we're entering an extinction event. If we deflate civilization fast enough, it won't be a mass extinction. On a seemingly unrelated note, I'm at peace with the global evidence that human birth rates are dropping below replacement. We need to keep them down, for everything's sake. And we need to treasure the children and grandchildren we do have. Sigh.
I teared up reading about the diver crying while in her mask and watching the extinction of coral.
Great piece and I look forward to what else you have to say.
20 years ago I told some lifelong republicans that if denying Climate Change, when they knew it was real, was part of their political survival something was ghastly about their party.