May 4, 2019
  Well today on the radio I heard that there was a new report out by the United Nations saying that we are at risk of losing about 1 million species of living organisms in the near future as a result of human- caused changes to the planet including habitat loss, climate change and pollution and that this will have profound consequences for our own species.  Not new information but significant in that so many scientists were involved in the analysis and that it was broadcast world wide by the United Nations. On the one hand I am sure that this information was received by most people as another wake-up call about how dire our situation really is but that other darned hand points to the fact that world-wide there seems to be a disturbing trend toward choosing hard right leaders who, for reasons beyond my comprehension, have a strong anti-science and anti-rational bent that includes a real disdain for concerns about the environment.  Rational self interest doesn't seem to top their agenda. In the U.S there is, of course, Donald Trump and Dutarte in the Philippines, Orban in Hungary, Bolsonaro in Brazil etc. etc in and endless stream of populist carpetbaggers who seem to have missed out on the enlightenment. Making things even worse for me is the fact that even in Canada there seems to be tide of irrationality washing over the country with far too many ultra-conservative populists being elected. In Ontario we have Doug Ford trying his best to undermine any progress that has been made in environmental protection and the issues of climate change while in Alberta Jason Kenny is also thumping his fists over the evils of addressing climate change with a carbon tax. They don't seem to care how inaccurate their rhetoric is and don't really seem to care about the probable outcomes of doing nothing about these issues. Now I know that sometimes the lust for power can cause some individuals to spout any lie that seems convenient but what really worries me is that for them to come to power what is needed is for a significantly large number of angry, uninformed and mean-spirited taxpayers to feel that the nastiness and irrationality suits them and so they come out in droves to elect the purveyors of simplistic, uninformed and downright dishonest drivel. This causes me some despair because I am left wondering about what the value of coming to a better understanding of how the universe works is if that knowledge is ignored in favour of the lunatic hate-speech of the day.  I have been told that I need to try and understand that those voters are somehow feeling that they have not been heard or helped in their own personal life struggles but it is hard to feel empathetic when it would be just as easy for them to seek help through making an honest effort at understanding the science involved and  acting in not just their own self-interest but also the interest of the societies that they depend on for their own survival.  I am going to spend some time trying to make sense of all this and also trying to talk about some underlying issues and ideas about what is at stake.