What Kind of Civilization Are Bequeathing to Our Children?

By Frosty Wooldridge

Have you noticed the news lately around the world? With the coronavirus bringing the big cities to nearly a standstill, the air pollution indexes dropped significantly within the past 40 days in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Beijing, Chicago, Mumbai and other multi-million-person cities.

Of course, once we create a vaccine to neutralize the virus, the human race will re-engage its methodical rampage on the Natural World. We’ll jump back to burning 100 million barrels of oil 24/7. We’ll ramp up the electrical plants by burning billions of tons of coal. Our cities will return to gridlocked congestion while the Brown Cloud over them increases in its lethal toxicity.

As you know, my Facebook page, under the name of Frosty Wooldridge, enjoys countless people from around the world sending me information on what’s happening in their neck of the woods.

This past week, a new YouTube movie, at 1 hour and 50 minutes, titled “Planet of the Humans”, directed by Jeff Gibbs gives a stunning view of the riptide created by humans as they devour natural resources around the planet. What’s a ‘riptide’? It is a violent undercurrent beneath the surface of the ocean that can suck you under and kill you in a minute. As a lifelong scuba diver, I know the power of those riptides. It’s a very good metaphor for this movie. It’s what we don’t or can’t see that will kill us. The video movie is free, so I clicked it for a viewing while I took notes. You may access it here.

It’s very sobering for anyone who cares about the future of the United States, and in fact, for the entire world. Why? Because we humans and everything we do, affects the rest of the planet. And, as shown by the movie, many corporations continue to ‘fool’ us, and the ‘do-gooders’ like Sierra Club, Citi Bank and many others continue to undermine the American people—all for money of course! The movie documents the “Green Movement” toward bio-fuels only to discover that major corporations continue to create a façade of ‘caring’ for the future.

In the past, most governmental actions under the Military Industrial Complex, also commanded by Wall Street giants, forced us into all the wars any of us baby boomers have endured since 1965. But of course, the Korean War and those who fought it, also faced the fraudulent contracts, but didn’t know it. Most of those Korean veterans thought they were fighting for freedom and their country. When in fact, they fought for pouring money into banker’s wallets.

The same kind of shenanigans continue today, but the Internet allows you to understand the fraudulent behavior of your U.S. Congress and the people who own them. That’s why we suffer 19 yearlong wars that are neither won nor lost, but continue for profits for powerful men in dark and high places.

Now, with the entire planet reeling from incredible abuses to the Natural World, i.e., “Sixth Extinction Session” ; 5 trillion plastic pieces floating in and under our oceans; catastrophic climate destabilization; 70,000 chemicals injected into the air, water and land 24/7, burning the rainforests into extinction and the list accelerates, we’ve got movies like this one to inform, educate and motivate us to action.

So, please take time to watch this movie. It directly affects you and your children if you or they will be alive in 2050.

Please understand that all great social movements started at the ground level. No one in Washington DC stopped the Vietnam War. The baby boomer generation stopped it by marching, burning draft cards and tossing worthless metals back over the White House fence at Nixon. No one in Washington DC gave the vote to America’s women. They marched, demonstrated and grabbed ears of Congress. No one gave equal rights to the Blacks until Martin Luther King marched.

What do you want for your children in the 21^st century? After watching this movie, what will you do to take action? Will you mobilize at the local, state or national level? What talents and skills do you bring to the table?

Can you continue to be disinterested, uninvolved and apathetic toward the future of your children? After watching the movie, what newer understandings are you considering? Do you realize that the worst decision you can make is to think you can do so little, that you do nothing at all?

Can you change the future toward a sustainable civilization? What actions will that take? What will you tell your children? How will they be affected?

Summation: the 21^st century will prove the continuance of the human race because we made significant changes toward sustainable future, or, if we continue on our current path of endless resource destruction and population increase, as shown by “Planet of the Humans”, we could very well see some very rough sledding ahead.

P.S. Thank you for the hundreds of supportive letters you wrote from my last column. You’re very kind. God bless you, your family and friends and let’s do our best to make through this pandemic.

E-Mail Frosty: frostyw@juno.com