It's Climate Change, Stupid: Swimming for Mental Health in a Time of Drowning

August 23, 2005

Hurricane Katrina ravages New Orleans, Louisiana, ultimately 1,464 lives are lost to the storm. 

I watched Katrina with horror, on Democracy Now's live stream, waking up at that time to the fact that Climate Change was causing this devastation. 

July 10, 2006

Virginia's Carbo Coal Fired Power Plant is locked down by a collection of Earth First activists who point the connection between fossil fuel burning and climate catastrophes. 

I was called by activist connector S Brooks and told I could be an activist and be part of the action.  I was cautious for some solid reasons and other anxious concerns.  But I accompanied the Earth First crowd to view Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth and invited the activists to my home where I think I cooked them something.  I was young and immature and had experienced an uphill struggle for mental health.  In fact I had just exited my final hospital in 2004.  If it came down to my mental health or helping a worthy cause, I decided to put on my safety mask first. 

As it turns out those two things are so inextricably linked.  Scientists have found that trees are all networked together, not even separating from one forest to another.  If one catalpa is chopped, all catalpas suffer.  Thus drowns the human race.

8/31/2017

As Hurricane Harvey takes its toll on Texas and Louisiana, as Bangladesh and India as much of East Asia flood, I ironically am swimming in East Tennessee to work out my mental health.  The struggle is constant.  I put on my mask, and I know who not to contribute to:  the Red Cross has been flagged as a cause that mismanages money.  But what more can I do for the human cause?  I was asking this in 2005, and what I have found is that boycotting big corporations and living simply IS valuable.  I traveled to Louisiana in 2009 but there is something about how I am built that, though I rebuilt some ceilings, I never have done ENOUGH.  I mean I am not doing the wrong things, I didn't for example vote for Trump, duh!  But it seems I am missing some possibility to help out?