The disturbing juxtapositioning of social unconsciousness in NEO, reflected by the billboards above, found on Detroit at W. 28th Street, says it all about what is wrong with America today and our economy. Raw selfishness championed by the baby-boom generation has corrupted core, co-conspiring, selfish Gen-X leadership, placing Cleveland and human existence in jeopardy. In a quote from a 20/20 program today on the end of life on Earth, a scientist said "our children and grandchildren already tell us we ruined everything" and that is so correct. I apologized this weekend to my 12 year old daughter for today's leaders destroying her planet, and challenged her to focus her life on saving Earth, as the future clearly depends upon her and the next generations. After an hour and half of the 20/20 program "Last Days on Earth [1]", exploring what may end human existence, from comets and pandemics to nuclear war, the program's conclusion was that we are already destroying the planet through CO2/pollution, and climate change will end human existence in less than 100 years, without significant change in human behavior and global leadership.
In exploring the issue more deeply, the scientists 20/20 interviewed about global warming pointed out that all real scientists agree man has destroyed the environment and global climate, and they blame a few corrupt industry leaders for the fact humans are not now fully addressing the problem - this is the fault of the same "tabacco-industry" style leaders who control NEO... coal, industrial polluters, their lawyers like at Cleveland's Jones Day, and corrupt politicians and mainstream media... all on the payrolls of industry. One scientist 20/20 interviewed gives mankind 50 years... I expect less. So, as the program asked, what do we do in the face of eminent human extinction? Have kids, pray or get drunk? How about demanding change and taking responsibility in our own lives and for the behavior of orhers.
The greatest risk to human existence is the anti-science, irrational fundamentalist religious virus that has infected America, and other corners of the planet. In a recent USA Today poll, clearly 85% of Americans do not even believe in evolution - they are anti-science and are not going to be easy converts to the concept that man is destroying the planet, as they place their trust in their selfish futures in whatever version of God to which they subscribe. Bad politicians have mastered the exploitation of these fundamentalist extremists to great global harm, just as religious terrorists use religion to justify mass human extermination, and that has finally tipped the global scales away from environmental balance to disastrous ends. If society is not able to place scientific reality above religious fanaticism, human existence is not sustainable, and the end will be very soon and not be in rapture.
Assuming religious fanaticism is put in check, at a global level, the battle for the survival of humans will become a global cause, but be fought at the national and local levels. I am confident that over the next two years enough of the intelligent and rational people in America will realize human existence is in jeopardy, and will demand change in our nation and at a global level. I do not know if we can influence China and other major polluting nations, but I am hopeful global economic interests will eventually balance the ecological scales to buy mankind more time to develop mature long term strategies for the future of the planet. Where I see that thus impacting NEO is we have the choice now to become a good champion of the future, or to be to blame for the woes of 6 billion people - right now we are the enemy of global human survival.
If you follow the media and political spins on coal and pollution in NEO you know Ohio is pro-pollution, as that is viewed as pro-industry, as our industry-funded leaders see it. Based on such regressive environmental positioning, NEO and Ohio are positioned to be hated by all informed, enlightened people of Earth... this embarrassment is in addition to the scorn we already face for the high level of religious fundamentalism in our leadership ranks, making us a laughing stock of the enlightened. Under such circumstances, it is inconceivable that smart, progressive people will move and stay here, as this is not a place that is morally acceptable to them. As such, no progressive, "new" economic development policies will stick, as the people that the new economy depends upon will shun our dirty air, land, water, politics and economics. So, to be real about economic development in NEO, we need to be real about our global position on pollution, now... a windmill won't do it.
Polluting economies are the enemy of progressive global society and human existence, but, with great, progressive leadership today, NEO could rise to the ranks of great communities at a global level... we are small enough to shift focus and act quickly in a very big way... but not if we act spoiled, and think, "so what", as we demonstrate today on our surface.