I have of late lost all my mirth …

I have of late, and wherefore I know not lost all my mirth.
This goodly frame, the Earth, seems to me a sterile promontory,
this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
(see note 1)

So speaks Shakespeare’s Hamlet. He seems to speak for me as I read that Brazil feels that they should be paid by the rest of the world, or else they will refuse to protect the vast Amazon rain forest, possibly the greatest carbon sink on land that the Earth has. In fact, they are being paid. Norway is giving them money – enough to amount to $1 billion by 2015 according to MSNBC. They’re aiming for $21 billion.

I’m reminded of the insane asylum inmate who somehow got a loaded gun. When the police had him surrounded, he held the gun to his head and told them, “Stay back or the idiot gets a bullet in the brain.”

It’s not that I object to helping out … it’s the implication of the government down there that if they don’t get the money, they won’t do it. But then, you see the same attitude up here. Our own neo-con’s, Hatch and Herbert, are deeply into denial too, Hatch famously referring to global warming as “science fiction”.

Here’s a nostalgic past blog from Pete Ashdown, who at least was willing to give Utah a sane choice by running against Hatch in the last election.

This is the kind of thing that helps to convince me that there really isn’t any hope for the future. The only thing actually in doubt is how long it’s going to take. Hopefully, we have ten or twenty years before things get really bad. Some days, I think I’ll make it. Some days, I think I won’t.

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Note 1 – Version used the in the musical, Hair.