Update: "The moment we finally decided to save our planet!"

Update on Global Warming: A few weeks ago I wrote that the USA needs to ratify the Paris Accords (see below).  Well, here is the 'good news' that often does not make it to the 'nightly news'--kudos to President Obama! With China likely on board, once India is added, we have something to rally around. 

(According to Ron Allen of NBC News (and the conservative Washington Times): "President Barack Obama has announced the U.S. will formally join a sweeping global emissions-cutting accord reached last year, boosting efforts to bring the plan into effect by the end of 2016. The Paris Agreement could well be remembered as "the moment we finally decided to save our planet," Obama said on Saturday in advance of the Group of 20 summit that starts Sunday in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou."

So in case you missed this story due to the overabundance of 'election coverage'- here is what is really the Biggest Challenge Facing the World! This is what I wrote a few weeks ago under the Heading : 

Superman and Global Warming 'They had it right in 1938:

For all you non-Superman folks out there, this is Superman 101. It's pretty spooky!

Superman is born Kel-El on the alien planet Krypton. His parents, Jor-El and Lara, brilliant scientists whom everyone ignores for years, become aware of Krypton's impending destruction, and Jor-El begins constructing a spacecraft that would carry Kal-El to Earth. (Apparently the planet is overheating and is about to burst...hmm...sound familiar?) 

During Krypton's last moments, Jor-El places young Kal-El in the spacecraft and launches it. Jor-El and Lara die as the spacecraft barely escapes Krypton's fate. ( Marlon Brando's big cameo in the original movie). The explosion transforms planetary debris into kryptonite, a radioactive substance that is lethal to Superman. Note:The people of Krypton were portrayed as living in a cold and heartless society. Though they were masters of science,...(or so they thought and then Boom!)"

The foreshadowing of the 1938 writers was spooky. Like a lot of science 'fiction' literature, it's all too real, nowadays (except for the Jetsons). 

Just like today, despite the OVERWHELMING science of global warming, not to mention the Olympics visual presentation in the Opening Ceremony, some American politicians still think:

A. it's a hoax.

B. it's just a natural cycle for Earth (a vicious cycle!).

C. (admit it, sort of) but claim it's not man made.

D. the melting ice caps will make for a good investment in real estate (hmm, who could that be?).

E. if we do something drastic, like move away from fossil fuels, then we lose too many jobs!

The answer of course is none of the above, but not if we are forward thinking. (more on that in Part 2). 

See the wildfires and drought in the West, the tornadoes in the Midwest, the flooding in the Southeast, and the storms in the Atlantic Coast? You boil the atmosphere and you get the hottest years on record...each year topping the year before, only it is growing faster and faster. Al Gore and Jor-El (Superman's father) were warning us of the Inconvenient Truth. (Note: reverse the names Al Gore and Jor-El...spooky!)

Don't just believe me, follow this link:

http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/05/04/476717308/after-10-years-an-inconvenient-truth-is-still-inconvenient

So what do we do besides look for another planet to eject our kids? Here is the obvious suggestion (other than personal recycling, reusing, downsizing, etc.

1. Support the Paris Climate Agreement the President  (Secretary of State John Kerry) signed, but are not ratified by the United States yet. Since they are not, there is no enforcement.Accordingly, "the stated objectives of the Paris Agreement are implicitly "predicated upon an assumption – that member states of the United Nations, including high polluters such as China, the US, India, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Indonesia and Australia, which generate more than half the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, will somehow drive down their carbon pollution voluntarily and assiduously without any binding enforcement mechanism to measure and control CO2 emissions at any level from factory to state, and without any specific penalty gradation or fiscal pressure (for example a carbon tax) to discourage bad behavior." wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement

I know what you're thinking: we won't agree until the other big polluters ratify and enforce. Seriously? I thought we were the leader of the free world...the one Superpower...the great inventors...visionaries...Heck, we saved the world from the Nazis! Who's gonna save us from ourselves...Superman? What does America use its power for?

In Part Two- I have some other solutions...but for now, our congressional leaders are waffling, but more importantly President-elect Trump and his appointments to his cabinets are climate deniers!

            In the meantime, the clock is ticking....here at Bob Pacilio's "Metaphor Cafe"