Can't We All Just Get Along?

Ah, the pleading refrain of Rodney King.  You remember him: the fellow who was caught on video being beaten half-to death by LAPD, way back in '91.  Hardly seems possible that almost twenty years have passed since he uttered his plea.


So, here we are at the end of the first decade of the 21st century and we seem to be back-sliding somehow.  I read that Komosolskaya Pravda, a major newspaper in Russia, published an article blaming the record making heat-wave in  Russia this summer on--get this--an American weather weapon.  Yes, a super weapon of such capability that we can now control the weather in other parts of the world.  And, of course, we would choose to do this--according to Pravda--because we're intent on short-stopping Russian economic growth.


When I read this I was stunned, not by the idea that such a weapon might exist--I would bet the ranch that it does not--but by the fact that major spokespeople in Russia would think that we would target them, if it did.  Somehow, the mindset has become perverted to the point of needing to blame us for what is actually an outgrowth of global warming.  That isn't mere conjecture on my part; numerous scientific sources are citing the anomalous heat of the summer of 2010 as such.


I was relieved to read that President Medvedev himself  issued a statement to the effect that the Russian government knows this is climate-change related and that the U.S. is not responsible.  This is actually a hopeful sign, because the Russians have not admitted that global warming was either real or caused by human activities prior to this point in time.


But, my initial reaction to the Pravda article was, "What is going on here?  Are they watching Fox too?"  It is just so far out there, so paranoid and conspiratorial to get from a rational look at the ever vaster volume of science that supports global warming.....to "The Ameircans are doing it with a secret super-weapon."  Wha?


Of course, the irony in all of this is that, more than anybody else--although the Chinese are doing their level best to pollute as much as they possibly can--we ARE 'doing it'.  But, we're just doing it the old, hard way, with massive energy consumption, ignoring most of what we could do to lessen our impact on the planet. Besides, what makes the Russians think that a country that watches Fox News and thinks it is real, could be smart enough to make a super weapon to manipulate the weather?  If we could really do that....it is also likely that we could learn how to behave in a way that wasn't destroying our host planet.


And, I see no sign that we're there.....or even really headed there with any sense of urgency or responsibility.