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CHARLOTTE R. MENDEL
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Disclaimers

7/21/2022

2 Comments

 
My idea to write a blog met with surprising resistance from my loved ones.
From my sister: “Charlotte - do you mind leaving the country before you publish your blog? I feel that your 'rants/ fresh thoughts' will come across better from a distance!”
From my ex: “You can’t put the word ‘penetrate’ in your blog. You can’t put anything personal.”
Me: “My dear man, every single man alive is penetrating thousands of times during their lives. How is that personal?”
Ex-Hubby: “It’s crude and vulgar.”
I stare at him incredulously. Ex-Hubby is my definition of vulgarity. I basically slept in a sewer for 32 years; every time I turned over in bed a wave of Hubby-Farts permeated the air.
So to calm ruffled family feathers, here are two disclaimers:
  1. DNA similarity in NO WAY denotes similarity of opinion
  2. Everything I write is from my own limited perspective. Perhaps from Ex-Hubby’s perspective I was the source of the Flatulence in our Four-poster. But you’ll never know, because I’m the one wielding the pen. BAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAA 
And one more disclaimer: don’t read my blog if you have any expectations. If blogs are supposed to be consistent, too bad. I hope that the fact that my first blog was about Trump and Trudeau and my second one was about Toots makes this clear.
So why am I writing a blog? I guess, ultimately, my goal is to start a terrorist group, but I get distracted by bodily functions because they’re so damn fun to write about.
Did you know how much the twelve biggest oil companies will spend daily for the next eight years on new oil and gas exploration—aka carbon bombs? $384 million. According to The Guardian, this will ‘’drive catastrophic climate breakdown around the world”.  
Unless the oil companies are stopped.
This is the moment when you have to ask yourself that famous philosophical question: If you were in the room with Hitler and you knew what he would to in the future, would you kill him?
We know what the Exxon oil executives will do. According to 97% of the world’s scientists, their actions will cause temperatures to exceed human tolerance in some areas. If this happens, we can expect heat waves that will cause more deaths over a period of two weeks, than Hitler caused over the entirety of the war. Cooked alive.
And it’s not even because of a twisted ideology about the greatness of one’s own race/creed/belief (as a Jew I have been privy to these types of biased feelings myself)—it’s about short-term profit. Isn’t this much, much worse?
The difference between a 1.5 degree temp rise and a 3.6 temp rise (where we’re headed if the oil companies go ahead with their plans) is the difference between reasonable lives—or horrific ones—for our children. Our CHILDREN!
So if we love our children and our grandchildren, then how can we argue against a few strategic assassinations, aimed at people who are lining their pockets with our kids’ future? Perhaps they think billionaire toots don’t smell so bad. They’re wrong—and if you don’t think they’re despicable and dispensable—you’re wrong too.
If you think I’m full of crap, I’d love to hear why. Because I’m asking you to stop with this polarized bullshit. Our different views about Roe Vs. Wade, or immigration, are distractions preventing us from uniting against our common foe.
Leonard Cohen sang:
“There is a war between the rich and poor
A war between the man and the woman
There is a war between the left and right
A war between the black and white
A war between the odd and the even”.
At the time Leonard Cohen wrote it, he was correct, but today there needs to be an extra line: “Not all wars are born equal.’’
There is only one war that will wipe out billions of people. And it’s not between the black and white or men and women.  And it’s certainly not our very divided opinions on these subjects --it’s not about the war between the left and right.
It’s the war between the rich and poor. We all love our children and the vast majority of us are good people.  Let us unite against our common foe, for the sake of our children. How about it? Ready for a little eco-terrorism?
I will struggle to tell the truth, but I only possess the information I know, so if readers have information that disputes something I am saying, inform me so I can learn and shift my views!


2 Comments
Maya
7/27/2022 06:13:34 am

Isn’t the oil exploration of the oil companies directly related to our voracious appetite for oil? How is that separate?
I am feeling the tension of contradiction and climate denial every day. I am amazed at Earth how much of our neglect it is putting up with. We just want to do what we want. I am limiting my carbon footprint by having a mostly plant-based diet, by not commuting to work, by enjoying natural past times, that don’t need a lot of equipment, such as walking, swimming, meditating, watching Zoom webinars.
But please, tell us more about your ideas for eco-tourism.

Good luck with your blog - and thanks for adding a little fart humour!

Reply
charlotte mendel
7/28/2022 02:42:41 pm

Hello Maya,
Thank you for your response!
It's eco-TERRORISM, not eco-tourism--maybe everyone is misreading it in sheer disbelief at the real word. 😊
So first of all, you are clearly looking at your life decisions through the lens of the climate crisis, and ultimately that is what we want to persuade people to do.
However, most people will stop using oil only when price/convenience and hopefully increasing societal judgment stops them--probably a few years down the road. Meanwhile, the world has already extracted enough oil to push us over the 2 degree limit, so it is totally insane--even from a financial POV--to dig for more oil.
Compare these oil execs to the cigarette execs of the past; they are lying to the people in order to line their pockets. You don't say "Wait, there's a voracious demand for cigarettes and that's the problem". You stop them at the top and make cigarettes $20 a pack and then only idiots like me keep smoking.
But it's harder now, because the oil execs have their hands in Trudeau's back pocket. And we need to speed things up. So, a little eco-terrorism?

Reply



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    I am a writer and I will try to amuse and entertain you with this blog, while provoking thoughts that challenge your existing beliefs. But beliefs only change with dialogue--so trust that I am looking for the truth as much as you are.

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