The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
If anyone needed any more evidence to substantiate the reality of climate change, the pollution of the air in the upper Midwest and northeastern states during the month of June should convince however many skeptics have not been willing to admit the truth. Before Lois and I left on our long driving vacation to Wisconsin and Colorado the middle two weeks of June, already the headlines for several days told of smoke from forest fires in western Canada, Minnesota, Michigan, New England, and Quebec that blanketed much of the eastern United States and the maritime provinces of Canada. The New York Post had a typical Post headline: “Blame Canada!”
When we drove through the whole elongated state of Illinois and southern Wisconsin, we saw clear evidence of a drought. For almost one entire day, the sky had an absolutely even light-grey color, such as I have never seen before. Not until later did I realize it was all smoke without any clouds at all. We were told it had been the driest May on record in the upper Midwest. The corn had barely sprouted, and some fields had not even been planted, because those farmers feared there would be no yield from the crops.
In Canada the fires sprang up much earlier than ever before. Half a million acres went up in flames there. In Quebec alone, there was 217 times the amount of burned-over land as in a normal year, and the year is only half-finished. When we drove into the western entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, there were thousands and thousands of black tree trunks lying on the ground from a 2020 forest fire. Thus far in 2023, there has been four times as much smoke in the U.S. atmosphere as in all other years averaged together.
Humanity is baking or broiling the air we breathe, and too many of us are too unconcerned. This is not Chicken Little crying out, “The sky is falling; the sky is falling!” This is us, igniting the many fuels that cause climate change.
Turn up the thermostat in the summer and down in the winter. Recycle everything that is recyclable. Don’t turn on any lights that are unnecessary, and remember to turn lights out that are no longer necessary. And remember what Smoky the Bear has been telling us for decades, “Only you can prevent forest fires!”
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.