Screw the children, save it for yourself.

by Robert J.
(San Francisco, CA)

We-Save-We from Me-Me-Me - One guy screamed “save the planet for my lungs, screw the kids! ” ! “ and a Hawaiian ocean guardian smiled, dropped some island wisdom, and turned his selfish panic into the best group hug ever. Want to ditch the lone-wolf vibe and join the breeze that cleans us all?

Robert says: I know a lot of people talk about "saving the environment for our children". I wonder if these people realize that A LOT of us are going to be alive to witness the horrible results of all our pollution.

I know that I'm expected to live at least another 60. If the current trends of fossil fuel consumption, deforestation and other plundering of our natural resources do not change... well I'm positive that we'll start to see devastating GLOBAL consequences of our actions.

There are actions we can take. Most of us know some of them, drive less, recycle, buy energy saving bulbs, etc. However there are many other ways to help: eat less meat, eat more locally grown produce, sell your car and use public transit, if public transit is bad in your area, move to some place where it isn't... and so on and so forth.

Sadly, I don't see the average American (or average member of most any nation) taking any sort of serious action other than CFL bulbs and recycling (if their community sanitation picks it up for them.)

In the end, it will probably be large scale geo-engineering that saves us all, but that too may open up a whole new "can of worms". We'll all just have to wait and see what happens.

Barry's Response - A little fresh 'tude there, Robert. It never hurt anyone. Whatever works. Thanks.

Search this site for more information now.

Are you kidding me?

"Screw the children, save it for yourself" - damn, that sounds like a rogue thunderclap, doesn't it? When smog claws at your throat today, turning every breath into a gamble, why chase fairy-tale futures? I feel that burn in my chest, the kind that flares when you dodge another wildfire evacuation or cough up city grit - it's not abstract apocalypse, it's your lungs screaming "fix this now!"

You and I will stick around if trends hold, gasping through decades of our own mess. Here's the twist that keeps me grinning: that selfish spark? Nothing moves mountains like people fighting for their own damn air.

We're brewing a storm right now.

NOAA meteorology just dropped bombshells on urban pollution and weather - think about jet streams slinging LA wildfire smoke from January's blazes across half the continent, spike PM2.5 levels 300% in spots, and crash distant beaches with every gust.

What's up with those tiny particles? Toxicology crews track them as ninja invaders, sneaking past nose hairs to nest in your bloodstream, tweaking heart rhythms and fogging brains. That crab scuttling Barbados sands (shoutout to that salty beach buddy in the pic) dodges oil slicks, but do you?

Deforestation amps up fossil feasts, stripping forests that once ate up CO2 like Pac-men. It's great to eat local and ditch the drive, but imagine scaling that to geo-hacks so we can control the clouds.

Let's sass the doomsayers a sec

...because we're free to think wild. Mainstream eco-chatter hypes aquatic Armageddon, painting oceans as toxic soups drowning fish stocks, but skeptics argue with data: EPA logs show U.S.-river-lead-content has dropped 90% since the '70s thanks to targeted regulations, not blanket bans that hurt fishing jobs in some states.

Natural cycles - like volcanic burps or solar wobbles - stir waters more than we admit, according to a cheeky Nature piece. It's not denial; it's demanding proof before we kneecap the economy. We might flip "dominion" into "tend the garden," encouraging us to preserve crab haunts because a Creator who knit waves expects us to surf 'em clean, not poison the boards. Others cheer it as property pride (own your stream, clean it fiercely), or you might like the equity angle - why should Bronx kids wheeze while Hamptons heirs have a toxin-free yacht?

When we innovate beyond finger wagging, we win.

In a cyclone, who plots a straight line?

Imagine if we flipped geo-engineering from mad scientist taboo to teen toolkit, inspired by Dune's sandworm revolts and Aztec sky-lords wrestling storms?

Harvard's Solar Geo program (fresh off trial) weighs benefits like reducing heat deaths by 20% against risks - uneven cooling might frostbite cooler climes or spark acid rain monsoons. Is it controversial? It could lead to human-rights headaches, letting rich nations dim the sun while poor nations bake. Let's make "chaos labs" in backyards, where kids seed clouds with aerosols and crowdsource data via apps that make toxin hunting fun.

Is it revolutionary? Turn pollution plumes into prediction parties by bypassing bloated governments with blockchain-verified community fixes. The data backs it up: WMO's September bulletin says air-climate tango is worsening ozone spikes 15% in urban heat islands, but local hacks like Singapore's vertical farms already slash emissions 30%. Funny how crabs scramble sideways - nature laughs at straight paths, so why not us?

Your defiant rage hits hard here

When I see a kid chasing plastic waves, my heart twists because it ain't legacy; it's lunch. We wait for geo-worms, sure, but why not worm our way in now? Hope bubbles up sassy, like Banksy stencils tagging smokestacks with crab selfies: "Breathe free or die trying." Steak for seitan stir-fries grown two blocks over, pedal past the pump - small rebellions add up. Let's deregulation dreamers to create wave-taming tech that increases blue-collar jobs; or, let's flood underserved hoods with clean-breath grants. How about together? From choke to thrive, we rewrite the forecast.

Imagine hacking your hood's haze like a video-game boss level, earning badges for every recycled rig that scrubs a stream.

Novices, start simple: Sniff your air (free on phones), track crab cousins with citizen cams, and question everything - is the flood hype or a hill to climb? For more defiant data drops, search "screw the children save it for yourself geo hacks" on Google.

Reader, what's your wild worm-turn?

Let's crowdsource a crab-proof comeback!