Happy Talk? Nope

By Tom H. Hastings

      The three most likely methods by which the human species can self-inflict harm, even extinction:

1. Failure to stem anthropogenic climate chaos.
2. Inadequate preparation for the next pandemic, possibly worse than Covid-19.
3. Nuclear war.

Obviously, this commentary is skipping the happy talk.

Can average folks like you and me (I know you’re above average, just to be clear) do anything to be part of preventing any of these potential catastrophes?

Yes, we can.

1. There are many ways to participate in a collective set of actions that can slow, stop, and reverse climate chaos, of course.

• Drive less, fly never except in dire emergencies
• buy more local food to cut down on transport fuel for our food.
• Same thing with growing a garden.
• Use less electricity wherever possible, especially if your power company uses any fossil fuel.
• Buy more used goods when possible.
• Eat lower on the food chain.
• Vote for candidates who support efforts to go green–massive federal programs that can create many more jobs even as they lower carbon pollution. Candidates at every level of government can and should work hard to bring such programs into play now. Right now.

2. To help prepare more adequately for the next pandemic, vote for candidates who promise support for such preparations, most meaningfully at the federal level and most crucially at the presidential level. While Obama ordered significant investment in pandemic preparation, Trump canceled all that, so the US was caught completely flat-footed and then he stalled on any meaningful response for a long time, even discouraging mask wearing (which is radically different from discouraging a vaccine, since a mask is simply a mechanical effort to avoid inhaling pathogens). Biden signed serious support for pandemic preparation.
3. What can we do to help prevent the fastest method of mass species suicide, nuclear war? This, like pandemic preparation, is almost all about educating our fellow citizens and about voting, especially at the federal level, since that is the only level of government that creates and controls nuclear weapons and the policies that can lead toward or away from disaster.

Trump and his MAGA allies in the House and Senate have brought us to the brink of annihilatory nuclear war by eliminating virtually all the hard-negotiated nuclear treaties–with Russia, of course, but also Iran–that have given us a bit of protection. Biden has genuinely tried to re-engage to save those various treaties but Trump has damaged the US credibility enormously; few wish to negotiate with a government that, under a president elected by a tiny margin, can flip and end agreements that were made with an intent to honor the generations?

Trump has demolished trust in the US. As a young Dad, I told my boys many times, “You can slowly earn trust by being honest every time. You can destroy trust much more quickly, by acting deceitfully just once.” In Trump’s case, the lies are not even possible to keep up with in real time, as was emphatically demonstrated by Trump’s astonishing string of hyperbolic falsehoods during the June 27 “debate.”

Indeed, writes historian Heather Cox Richardson:

This was not a debate. It was Trump using a technique that actually has a formal name, the Gish gallop, although I suspect he comes by it naturally. It’s a rhetorical technique in which someone throws out a fast string of lies, non-sequiturs, and specious arguments, so many that it is impossible to fact-check or rebut them in the amount of time it took to say them.

You may not agree with one or more of the things Biden has done. I know I don’t (offensive weaponry to Israel so they can commit genocidal war against Gazans comes instantly to mind). But to defend basic human survival, I will vote defensively–for Biden.

For the sake of the future of humankind, I hope we all do our due diligence and make our best rational choices. Not happy choices, but practical ones.

Dr. Tom H. Hastings is Coördinator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs and certificates at Portland State University.