Here is an Encouraging Headline

“Swedish millionaire John Eliasch purchased 400,000 acres of the Amazon Rainforest for $14,000,000 from a logging company, for the sole purpose of its preservation.”

I should read more about it, but this morning I am just happy enough to see the headline, without seeing if there is any catch or caveat to it. Probably there is not. I will even try not to dwell on the evil of Brazilian President Jair Bolsinaro, who may even outdo Trump in his efforts to destroy the planet so that he and his business cronies can make some more money. And that the people in Brazil voted for him.

I will focus on the fact that there are some people out there, perhaps even some rich ones, who care about the environment, and are trying to save it. Seven hosts of various late night talk shows all focused on climate change on their shows Wednesday night. I didn’t see any of them, but I am happy that they did it.

Prince William of England is making major efforts to help organize support to deal with climate change. Last October, he launched the Earthshot Competition, in which a prize of a million pounds will be awarded to each of the five winners, for innovative ideas that have “a significant positive impact on the problems facing the world.” Charged with selecting the winners, will be members of the Earthshot Prize Council, including Prince William, Sir David Attenborough, Cate Blanchett, Queen Raina of Jordan, and former U.N. climate chief Chrstiana Figueres

When announcing this effort in October, 2020, Prince William said, “Over half a century ago, President Kennedy’s “Moonshot” program united millions of people around the goal of reaching the moon. Inspired by this, the Earthshot Prize aims to mobilize collective action around our unique ability to rise to the greatest challenges in human history.” The categories include protecting and restoring nature; cleaning the air; reviving oceans; and arresting climate change.

It is good to see that there are people with influence, dedicated to trying to deal with climate change, which as any sane person knows, is a terrible threat to every living creature on this planet. The horror is that decades of people, mostly corporations (“Corporations are people, my friend!!” Mitt Romney in a presidential debate), wealthy profligates, Republican politicians owned by them; and millions of unperceptive and foolish individuals who would prefer it not to be true, have done everything they could to ignore, scoff at, and work against any efforts to combat global warming, and even to bring the issue up.

But more are waking up to it. The major problem is that the levers of power have been so taken over by the corporate tycoons who do not want anything to stand in the way of them making the most profits they can; and then the masses whom they help to indoctrinate, that it is so far impossible for this government to pass desperately needed laws to combat climate change. The Build Back Better bill has some important elements in that regard, but of course the Republicans have no intention of voting for any of the House Reconciliation Bill which contains them. So we have to hope that the Democrats, all by themselves, can pass this.

It would all seem to be the most obvious truth, even one as inconvenient as Al Gore described it as being. We see temperature records being broken everywhere. Droughts. Fires. So-called “one in a century” hurricanes. Do people think this will stop? Some try to invent theories to disprove this data and the evidence of their own eyes. I think that much of it is the relentless brainwashing that “they are trying to take away your liberties.” The same fury and stubbornness which keeps them from wearing masks and getting vaccinated, makes them not want to do anything which might heal the hole in the ozone layer. And they won’t be convinced, no matter what facts there are.

But polls show that most Americans believe that climate change exists, and want those in office to do something about it. And we see that many “celebrities” try to help, and also world leaders in other countries. So when a very rich person buys part of the Amazon Rainforest to prevent it from being destroyed, and further accelerating climate change, we should applaud.

One hopes that other people with the wealth to afford it, do similar things. It is a lot more important than going on space flights. Elon Musk, who I think is a world class megalomaniac, says he wants to live on Mars. I hope he can do so, and leave the rest of us who actually care about this planet, to work on it. He’s already got his car circling in orbit for the next hundred years or so, space junk to blight the rest of the universe, when he is no longer trying to get headlines devoted to him.