Over only four days during a quick trip to Maine in mid-August, the change began. Subtly, almost cautiously, a few trees tested their fall colors, especially some birches and black cherries with small yellow leaves. A few sumacs flared trial red leaves, or hinted at the coming season with a reddening of their plumes. Grasses deepened golden hues toward brown. Some maples flashed a few of the signature gold or red leaves on a branch or two. A month later, the signs are irrefutable: Ready or not, the transition is upon us.
Other urgent transitions are pressing for our attention right now. It’s long before my favorite holiday, and I am mostly vegetarian anyway, but it’s time to talk turkey. We are in some serious trouble, folks. There is no glossing over the fact that we face at least five major crises at once. How we got here is important, but as in a house fire, we shouldn’t wait around for proof of cause before finding a route to survival.
Five crises, all interconnected and self-reinforcing: the economy, war, climate, AI, and inequality.
With his uninformed beliefs about how economies work, hobbled by disproven Republican orthodoxy that the rich should get richer so a bit trickles down to the rest of us, our president assaulted the world economy with illegal and nonsensical tariffs. Prices have risen as a result, while alliances and trading partnerships have been wrecked. The most recent attack on Canada demonstrates how tariffs splash back on the United States, hobbling key industries and fracturing a long, proud alliance.
The unnecessary and illegal war with Iran was entirely the president’s choice. His obsession with oil wealth led him to trash the strong protections negotiated by President Obama restricting Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The complete failure to anticipate the likely closing of the Strait of Hormuz caused gas and diesel prices to soar, and now, like flammable fuel leaking under the door, fighting has spread, closing other major routes for oil transport and involving more countries, including Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Regular Americans, especially farmers and truckers who haul so many of our daily products, are choking on the smoke.
Indications of climate trauma are rising. Drought, unprecedented heat, forest fires, floods, warming oceans — all are having a huge impact on air quality, water supplies, farm production, fishing and human and animal health. Tied to the unrestricted use of oil and coal, climate trauma is exacerbated by this administration’s determination to erase constraints on the polluting industries.
Artificial “intelligence” has finally hit the front pages after slithering along largely unimpeded by social or governmental concern. Congress has failed to provide protections, leaving the misguided “leaders” to pursue their pseudo-intellectual puzzles as if it is all some sort of computer game instead of a world-threatening genie released from the bottle. Our president declares there’s no need for constraint or protection, blinded, as always, by his plans to make huge profits, whether through AI, oil, crypto or charlatan cures for diseases once prevented by thoroughly vetted vaccines. The public is catching on to the peripheral damage from giant water- and energy-sucking data centers required by AI. Even the heads of key companies are belatedly sounding the alarm about the need for strong regulation.
Underlying all these other crises is inequality. The huge distance between the wealth and power of the average American and the tiny number of billionaires that control more than half our wealth is increasing. Oligarchs possessing vast wealth believe that a small set of privileged people should be in charge. Democracy is an impediment! This fits nicely with racist and sexist theories that deem more than half our population “lesser.”
The uncontested accelerant of these crises is our president who appears to be seriously demented. His childish and warped incessant postings on social media would be pathetic if they weren’t so dangerous. Besides his noxious traits of greed, sexism, racism and graft, his mental health is a national threat and exacerbates all the crises we face.
Our fire escape is the upcoming election. The Supreme Court just negated plans for interference through the Post Office, but more meddling will come. We desperately need a strong House and Senate to get to work on the crises we face. Here’s our task: Vote.
Vote early. Vote in person if possible. Help as many others as you can to vote. Help clean house and put our best “first responders” in place to begin the transitions we desperately need.
Judy Wagner lives in Northfield.