In September we spent some wonderful days on the shores of the Libyan Sea in Crete, Greece, where we felt the last lashes of the terrific storm Daniel that drenched northern Greece and later swept thousands of Libyans into the sea. Here in Paleochora, Daniel left behind a lone flamingo that slowly marched up and down the sandy beach, unsuccessfully looking for proper food and drink in its new environment that clearly wasn’t Africa. A day later, it was still there, but now perhaps a bit wobbly and too weak to fly. Beachgoers took pictures of the exotic, failing bird, and on the third day it was gone.
I felt for this bird who had apparently been swept away from its home territory by storm Daniel and found itself marooned on a storied island that had seen the first blossoming of what used to be called Western Civilization but didn’t deliver the brine shrimp and tiny crustaceans it needed for survival. I share my existential angst over this flamingo because we may find ourselves similarly stranded by the effects of climate change.
Despite rapidly increasing temperatures, there’s scant evidence of urgency here and elsewhere to address this dire situation, with Pope Francis being a rare exception who recently said that “the world in which we live is collapsing”. The much-heralded Paris Accord of 2015, where the world’s nations solemnly agreed to do whatever is necessary to keep the average temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees centigrade, can be fed into the shredder. We’re now passing this mark and coasting toward 2 or even 3 degrees hotter by the end of this century, with miserable consequences for humanity.
Many of us are dealing with the climate problem individually by driving electric cars, solarizing our homes, and taking other actions, but these are mere drops in the bucket if our governments (city, county, state, federal) don’t join us and bring about rapid society- and systemwide reductions in CO2 emissions.
2024 is an election year and thus another chance to elect folks who recognize the climate urgency. Keep your eyes peeled for candidates who offer more than platitudes or thoughts and prayers for our future: candidates who act like our house is on fire ̶ because it is! We’ll need such people if we don’t want to end up like that poor flamingo on Crete.
Ed Maurer