This Historic Heat Wave

I don't know how many times I have heard the word historic associated with this week's heat wave. In one sense I have to agree. The heat wave is historic because its unprecedented. The number of heat records broken in just three weeks this summer numbers in the thousands.

But in another sense I am disturbed. I keep getting the feeling that the media is using the word historic in a dismissive sense, as if to say that this is happening now, but that doesn't mean that this is what we should expect from now on.

In that sense I completely disagree. This is the new normal. We have lost the battle against global warming. The summer we are having now is the summer we are going to have from now on. So the only historic aspect of this heat wave is that it is the start of a trend. And this is only the beginning of the devastating aspects that global warming will wreak upon the planet in the years to come.

The media never really waged the battle against global warming in the first place. They have given lip service to global warming, but there has never been an organized campaign in the mainstream media to raise awareness about what will turn out to be the biggest problem of the 21^st century. Like most of the American people they prefer to remain uninformed and assume that someone will come up with a solution.

Well people, no solution has been found and we have turned the corner onto a very warm slippery slope. The one associated story I did hear the other day was that a lot of the corn crop of the country has been wiped out, and that since corn is used to make a lot of other products, there will be an inflationary effect from the heat wave.Get used to that happening too.

In the same manner that you will never hear a story from the mainstream media saying that the standard of living in this country has been permanently lowered by predatory lending and wall street excesses, it will be a long time coming and far too late before anyone in the mainstream media admits that the war on global warming has been lost.

But no mistake about it, we have lost. And every single one of us is to blame, especially the baby boomer generation, because we are the generation presently in power. My generation has given me very little to be proud of.