Doom and Gloom

I am far from a doom and gloom personality, but today was one of those days .... to confront "wretched excess" in our town and what's happening globally.

We saw this Porsche in a big, busy, multi specialty medical clinic parking lot in downtown Seattle. Parked in the front of the staff parking section in full view to patients on their way to patient parking, it's in a spot chosen to be seen. From the license plate, we know he is a dermatologist and a Stanford graduate. We could figure out who it is from the clinic roster. This invites comments on many different levels. Judgement and ego? Public impression? Wisdom? Rights? I am embarrassed and outraged together for this doctor, and this department and this clinic. I can only think about the upcoming debate over health care in this country and despair! (Of course, this is one end of the spectrum....)


And on a different topic, we heard a doom and gloom lecture in Ocean 102 today. Because of climate change, with all the new sophisticated measuring tools now, (the rise in the ocean is measured by satellites in space!!) it is predicted that 33% of coastal land on Earth will be lost in the next 100 years when the ocean rises. 600 million people live in places less than 10 meters above sea level. 2/3 of the world's cities that have a population over 5 million are located in these at risk areas. And these are mostly places with no money to prepare sea walls like we can on our coast. The costs will be widespread, there will be loss of biodiversity in plants and animals and whole cultures will be displaced and lost.