I think it can be said with certainty that “eye of the storm” could easily be a metaphor for impending climate catastrophe. Actually in many ways we are already out of the relatively calm eye of the storm and into the outer rings of the tempest often in very disastrous ways. The many examples are becoming the new norm it seems with fires, floods, hurricanes, acidification of the oceans, melting North and South Polar ice caps and the resulting rising sea levels to mention just a few.
My go-to-guru on all things climate change has for years now been Naomi Klein. Her profound 2014 work: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate is a must read for understanding the stark connections between climate destruction and capitalism. In the book she is masterful in delineating the intersectionality between the misogynistic brutality of capitalism, many though not all fundamentalist religions and the destruction of Mother Earth. Though it seems obvious to many of us, women and the planet are not here to be used and suppressed to satisfy the whims of voracious proponents of capitalism. Sadly a respect for women and the earth is not a view shared by climate change deniers who are absolutely correct to assume that many environmental, social justice and animal rights movements sounding the alarm today are a direct threat to their world view and in many instances even their current way of life.
Even the Pope is on the right tract with this one as evidenced again by his recent remarks on the current dire situation of planetary destruction and of course in his 2015 Encyclical on climate which I have linked to here though clocking in at 75 plus pages it is not a quick read: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
Bravo to Francis on his continued enlightened advocacy of this global catastrophe. Now if we could just get the Papal head out the Papal ass around what does and does not constitute a legitimate family we would be off to the races. Hell, I had even, for a very short few seconds, reconsidered my negative views and thought maybe the Catholic Church had evolved to be a universal force for good in the world and not just primarily a bulwark for the heterosexual patriarchy. I am then sadly jerked back to reality with Francis saying derogatory and blatantly untrue things about Trans folks going against their true and God-given natures and LGBT couples having children not being real families. But you take what you can get and as Ken Wilber has famously said on several occasions: “nobody is wrong 100% of the time”.
Buckle up everyone, as I am about to make one of my tortured left turns here and sort of go off script. So as coincidence would have it Dead and Company performed last night, Sunday the 8th of July, at a Hollywood fundraiser for the environmental group Oceana whose mission is protecting and preserving the world’s oceans. They were in L.A. following a show at Dodger Stadium the night before. I did not attend the fundraiser since it cost a minimum of $5,000 to attend and I was not in L.A. last night. Apparently 1.1 million dollars was raised for the organization. Mickey Hart one the Dead’s two drummers made remarks quoted in Jambase at the event last night and in part said: “you have to fight the evil that is in the White House with everything you’ve got”.
Since I have already provided a link to a papal Encyclical I thought it only fitting to end with a Jambase link describing the fundraiser for the worlds oceans. In the unlikely possibility that anyone reading this is a Deadhead this piece will also provide the set list of tunes played at the event since any good Dead aficionado worth their salt must have the set list:
https://www.jambase.com/article/dead-company-plays-private-fundraiser-hollywood-oceana