Environmental Apocalypse Stock Photo Theater
Photo by Henri Picot on Unsplash
“Dad, when you were a kid, you didn’t celebrate the Solstice?”
“No, we celebrated Christmas.”
“Oh yeah, I’ve heard about that. What was it like?”
“You spent a lot of money buying presents for everyone one you knew, and most of the time, they would just throw them away.”
“That sounds stupid.”
“It was.”
“Why did you stop doing it.”
“It was wasteful, and we saw that all that consumption was ruining the planet. All the glaciers melted. My dad said he actually walked on mountains with snow. Now the only way we can do it is through this VR program.”
“Did it ever snow around the solstice when you were a kid?”
“No. It was never cold enough. It still snows in Northern Canada, the Nordic Countries, and Russia, but that is about it. "
“Did you ever see snow for real.”
“No. It’s too expensive to travel to those places just for snow. This mountain we are pretending to climb is a real one, but it hasn’t had snow in 100 years.”
“So, is this hike a Solstice present, or Christmas present?”
“Solstice. No one celebrates Christmas anymore.”
Dad, when you were a kid, why did everyone waste their time on NetZero ?.. we just studied it at school, and learnt how stupid the western government’s were in adopting that NetZero thing.
Well Son…. we had different governments back then that allowed science to be outmoded by political motives, and they listened to the UN that is now disbanded for its crimes against nations.
At the time the UN had a lot of power and thought a climate emergency would be a common enemy and stop wars, well they should have known better as they tried that with global trade, and it just made things a lot worse.
Dad, was the climate a problem back then?
No son…. its hardly changed at all .. a bit warmer and a lot greener and we have made sure we funded any adaption needed, but we stopped the waste of NetZero before it destroyed our western civilization.
Son, your teacher is correct…...we were stupid back then.
WOW, Matt, you have done it again. I LOVE THIS!!! I could write an article about the discussions/arguments I had with myself over Christmas gifts and the futility of it all, the sham. I ended up donating $5 for each of 18 people -- well, 16 people and 2 pets -- on my list to the Old-Growth Forest Network in their names but then my BFF frankly told me that most people wouldn't consider that a real gift so I went out and bought little trinket-types of new things to fill the traditional Christmas Pudding basket my grandfather started. After he and Grandma had bought "real" gifts for everyone, he went alone to the 5&10 cent store, remember those? and bought each of us something small. He wrapped them up, tied a string around each one, and at the other end of the string was a tag with our names on it. On the count of 3, after dinner, we would pull our strings and open our little presents. It was so much fun that I've carried it on for many years. This year, I almost gave up but didn't. Habits are hard to kill. So, on Christmas day, everyone will have a $5 invisible gift for the trees and something they probably don't need from the Christmas Pudding. My heart (and you) tell me it's time to celebrate Solstice again. Thank you!