We view the aftermath of the devastation from Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi, and I listen to predictions of the cost and challenges of cleaning up and rebuilding. I also hear about the increased price of petroleum with the damage to the supply and production channels of 1.5 million barrels daily from this area.

Is it possible to consider that humankind has exacerbated at least one “natural” event such as this through profligate carbon dioxide emissions? If it is possible, then perhaps those political and corporate individuals and entities who have allowed up to ignore these possibilities for 25 years might realize that the cost of doing next to nothing with reducing our fossil fuel consumption is going to be much greater to our society than if we had acted years ago.

I think that nature will eventually motivate some to act, but it is really disheartening to have our political institutions so consciously and seriously damage our own future by inaction. I see more and more evidence that the future is upon us.

This may sound a bit like crying Armageddon, but seriously, folks, do you think that our political leaders will ever “get it” and rise above the short term corporate greed that fuels their inactions? It’s hard to believe they can be so blinded for so long in the face of the obvious.

Feeling just a bit despairingly today.