How do we make sense of the grief we feel of what we’ve watched unfold on the north edges of Los Angeles? We saw this image of an Oscar lying in the remains of someone's home that has burned down and changed the lives of those who lived there forever.
We thought that this image said so much…an Oscar represents an acknowledgement of achievement in one aspect of the making of a motion picture…stories of fiction…illusion…make believe…projecting lives that are too good to be true…unattainable for most of us…a fictitious American Dream chased my many…at the beginning of the 1939 Academy Award Best Film Winner, Gone With The Wind, it explains how the film is the story about how the idyllic way of life in the southern United States is destroyed by the Civil War…how it is “Gone With The Wind”. Of course we understand that it was all an illusion, dependent and based upon the immense cruelty of slavery.
So here we are in 2025 where many of us live as if our way of life will just go on as before…unaffected by the changes that are happening to our climate all around us. Like the hurricane force winds that swept down from the Santa Ana Hills over the parched ground and created the Fire Weather that burned thousands of homes, and indeed Gone With The Wind.
We all understand that burning fossil fuels is harming the planet and putting lives at risk… many of our cities were not built to absorb the harsher weather we’re starting to experience as a result of a warming planet… the unrelenting heat in many parts of the world is greater and more oppressive increasing the evaporation from lakes and oceans leading to drought, crop failure and potential starvation for those in vulnerable locations…(the refugee migrations that we witness into Europe and across the southern US border, which are primarily driven by societal upheaval, violence and limited economic opportunities, might pale in comparison to the coming climate change refugee exodus)…the storms are more frequent and bring stronger winds and much more rain than before…the devastating hurricanes coming off the overheated Gulf of Mexico, leaving swaths of destruction and loss of life… the climate is changing…the weather patterns are changing…and more and more people are understanding this reality and letting their voices be heard that we all need to make the personal adjustments and support those politicians who are leading the way to a just, equitable and fair energy transition. A new anti-climate administration in the US will attempt to turn back the clock on climate initiatives but the ongoing changes to the climate will continue as will the transition away from the burning of fossil fuels led by committed and caring groups and organizations continuing to defend people and nature.
We are all dependent upon a sustainable future…we have a common fate…we can find our common ground recognizing that we all breathe the same air and cherish our children and grand-children’s future.
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.
