Reflections on Earth Day

I have sifted through all the postings of my friends for Earth Day this week, and there are some remarkably beautiful pictures of profound natural beauty on our amazing planet.  That is my usual approach to the remembrance day as well, to focus on the grandeur that is ours.  But not this year. 

This year I am using the post from my friend David Grinspoon, the first Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Astrobiology chair and all around well educated schience guy.  I have always said that the truth is stranger than fiction--as a psychiatrist, I have reason to know that humans often do things that make no sense.  But as conspiracy theories go, does this particular one ring true?  Not for me, because the incedulous things that people do that are hard to beleive are against their own self interests--that is what makes them sound fictional.  In this case, the entities that directly profit from business as usual are the ones who are climate change deniers.  Already we are past the point to respond, so we are reaping the consequences of inaction and will continue to do so for the forseeable future, while these guys are most likely busily buying up water rights around the world.

I just finished reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's book that focuses in part on the role that progressive journalists played in unmasking the corporate corruption at the beginning of the 20th century that led to profound differences between the rich and the poor.  They mobilized public opinion for change that mattered.  Who are the Ida Tarbells and Sam McClures of our age?  We need them ASAP.