Rogue Wave
Posted on | November 16, 2009 | No Comments
First of all, no, this post is not about the outstanding indie rock band called Rogue Wave. (Although they are quite good and I do encourage a listen.)
This post was actually inspired by a somber anniversary that I missed last week, and I’ll use it to make an analogy to get where I’m going. Bear with me.
November 10, 2009 was the 34th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in Canadian waters. The loss of this massive, 729-foot-long freighter is probably best known to my peers, as it certainly is to me, because of a sad song by Gordon Lightfoot. The ship sank with all 29 of its crewmen, without sending a distress signal, due to – according to a team from the Discovery Channel – a rogue wave.
(Still with me?)
Over the weekend, I saw the movie 2012. And it was, as you can imagine, pretty ridiculous. But it was entertaining. And this movie featured its share of rogue waves, for sure. Pretty much the biggest waves that fancy movie graphics could muster, probably.
When I got home yesterday, I saw in the news that a joint agreement had been reached by world leaders to … not reach an agreement. That is, all of our world leaders decided that a binding climate change treaty would NOT be agreed upon at Copenhagen in December. Instead, our leaders are now telling us that they will aim to reach a less aggressive “politically binding” agreement with the hope that they could address bigger problems in a second, later step.
(Here comes the hook…)
So I got to thinking, ‘wow, that must have been one hell of a big wave that took out the Edmund Fitzgerald.‘ And then I thought, ‘I wonder what sort of “rogue wave” it’s going to take to get our leaders to take action on climate change. That’s gotta be one hell of a big wave too…“ (Doesn’t everyone think in italics?)
But really. What’s gotta give for our leaders to take meaningful action? I fully understand and respect their decision to play down expectations ahead of Copenhagen. There are a lot of environmental activists making aggressive statements about what needs to be agreed upon in December, and while these activists make some good points, they are also not responsible to millions of people that elected them. At the same time, I’m sitting here, writing on my blog, and I’ve got that little countdown on the right hand side…. you know, that one, right over there ————————->
… and I guess I think that if some of these world leaders had a countdown like this on their desktop, maybe they wouldn’t want to put off decision-making anymore. My hope at this point is that a rogue wave of good intentions and common sense will overcome our leaders, maybe not in December, but soon, at least soon enough so that … well, so that it’s not too late for us to adjust to our warming planet. (Because I really do NOT want to go out like the folks in 2012 did… highly unpleasant, I tell you.)
So what’s it going to be, World Leaders? Do you have it in you?
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