UKIYO E

Ukiyo e is a Japanese art style that literally translates as "visions of the floating world". In the 1980's I saw Manhattan from New Jersey and it was floating on a cloud of smog. The smog is mostly gone now, as are the World Trade Centers. Some disasters happen fast, some happen slowly. Our whole world is floating in a growing man made cloud of greenhouse gasses that could be the biggest disaster ever.

GET YOUR PIECE

The countryside is being gobbled up by suburbia. Mac-Mansions for the rich and condos for the rest of us, march out from the cities taking square miles of productive farmland. When the real cost of fossil fuels is factored into the price the suburbs are done for.  In the outskirts of a city the first thing is the freeway. The malls come in anticipation of the boom. Houses and row homes sprout like mushrooms. The trees are cut and the original farm house is empty.

NOW THATS WHAT I CALL CLIMATE CHANGE

During Hurricane Sandy a town on the East Coast experienced a fire and a flood at the same time. Of course, this is weather, not climate, but enough natural disasters will hopefully wake up the politicians to the fact that we need to get serious about mitigation of the effects of the greenhouse effect.

WHICH WAY ?

We are at a crossroads. We can continue in

our profligate ways, or we can make a priority

of sustainability. On the one hand we have wind power, solar power, New Urbanism, public transportation, electric cars and bio fuels. On the other, fossil fuels, McMansions and urban sprawl.

NATURE BATS LAST

As we have learned from the pandemic , we ignore nature at our own peril. As   much as  the pandemic has altered our lives

and hurt the economy, it is just a preview of what will happen if we continue to ignore humans negative effects on the planet.