Scream

Today our brilliant and fearless leader, President Trump, damning the planet and all its inhabitants, withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. The agreement was a pledge, between nearly 200 nations, to reduce emissions and invest in clean, renewable energies in an effort to stave off manmade warming on a global scale. What does the US have in common with Syria and Nicaragua? Well, as of today, we're the only countries opposing the agreement. Some critics of the agreement note that participation was voluntary, claiming that the suggested guidelines weren't generous enough to achieve real, significant change. Conveniently, for them, we'll never know. But this line of thinking is not only myopic, it's dangerously ignorant and misguided. That there was a conversation happening, that promises were being made, that there was at least a willingness and a path to progress was the kind of hopeful encouragement the world needed. America was in position to take the lead and become a forerunner for clean energies such as wind and solar, but now the president has forfeited that advantage. Lost are the jobs that could have been created. Lost are the opportunities to invest in and subsidize technologies that would liberate us from dependencies on foreign oil and fossil fuels. In one fell swoop, we're standing on the wrong side of history. And for what? If the private sector is opposed to Trump's decision, and so are the American people, and so is the rest of the world, then who's interests are even being served?

Paying attention to politics in America right now is like watching a bad horror movie: we, the audience, watch helplessly, screaming invectives at the screen as the president makes idiotic thoughtless blunder after idiotic thoughtless blunder, always choosing stupidity over cunning, like a doomed Drew Barrymore making popcorn and talking on the phone with her secret Russian admirer about her favorite scary movie instead of calling the police. The twist is that Trump doesn't die as a result of his poor decisions, we do. And our kids do. And their kids do. I scream, you scream, we all scream! The craven irresponsibility of his actions, and the smug, self-congratulatory way that he kisses his own ass at the podium while trying to tell us he's doing us a favor, is really something to behold. He is a detestable, loathsome, despicable human being deserving of all the world's collective ire. He is the person at a concert who, after having shoved and elbowed his way through the crowd, stands in everyone's way taking lengthy cellphone videos and talking. He's the one who chews with his mouth open, who pisses in the pool, who doesn't flush after shitting in a public restroom. He's the schoolyard villain who claims to be victim once the teacher is called. He's the dirty old man, the entitled brat, the guy holding up the line, the asshole who won't give up his seat to an old lady. He's the kind of guy who won't help out if he isn't getting anything in return.

Earlier I was absolutely livid at the news of his decision. At work there was the temptation to begin scrawling hateful flurries of sentences to be unleashed here, but there wasn't enough time. Now those feelings of disgust, shame, helplessness and fury have become sadness, disappointment, fatigue. There is a deep emotional burden associated with existential contemplations of planetary extinction. There is barely the energy to write anything. My sentences on the matter are short and they all sound the same.

I'm tired. Tomorrow we're going into the woods to escape any reports of further misfortunes, just for a few days. We're going to sleep under the shade of tall redwood trees while they're still here. And at night we're going to look up at the stars while we can still see them. Hiking over falls we'll look at the white water rushing while it's still cold and clear. We'll breathe in the mountain air and enjoy a breezy, colorful sunset while we still can. Birds will sing and unseen creatures will scurry. Gnats and flies will swarm and tirelessly menace our faces...you know what, if there's one thing I'll be grateful for when the environment is destroyed and the world ends, it'll be that the flies will be gone, too.

Fuck flies.