The "Pollution, Pollution" Song

Who remembers this?  I think the song was originally released around 1965?  I remember singing it a lot during my teen years, just before we began to celebrate Earth Day.  And now?  Well, all I can say is thank God for the deal Sens. Schumer-Manchin pulled off to get the Inflation Reduction Act passed.  It's been signed by President Joe Biden.  Although it's called "Inflation Reduction" because that's more palatable than addressing climate control or health care, President Biden has to take a lot of credit for this.  It's got parts of his Build Back America plan in it, the one that Smanchinema thought they killed.  The most important part of the bill is the way it begins to combat climate change.

Make no mistake about it: climate change is here, rapidly increasing, and it's deadly.  I wrote about climate change some time last week.  Since then, there's been more bad news about how the world is changing due to pollution, mostly by carbon emissions.  This summer, we've already suffered with heat waves that sickened people because of high temperatures and poor air quality.  It's predicted that by 2053, the middle of our country from the south up north of Chicago could experience heat waves where the temps would feel like up to 125 degrees.  That's desert weather.  The dire report comes from a non-profit research company called First Street Foundation.  Can you imagine this?  This is the area we call the "bread basket." What can you farm in the desert?

Reservoirs are drying up.  Out west, several states share water from Lake Mead.  Now, though, it's down to 27 per cent capacity.  There's a picture of it here.  The Colorado River is so low that Arizona, Nevada and Mexico have to reduce how much water they draw from it.  Here in New Jersey, we live over a large aquifer and yet we have to voluntarily reduce how much water we use.

If that wasn't enough, heard of The Blob?

That's why it's so important that this bill has been signed into law.  When the bill was finally passed, former President Obama tweeted that "This is a BFD."  That's what Vice President Biden whispered to him when the ACA was passed.  And he's right.  It is a big fucking deal.  Dan Rather wrote a column about it.

This explains how the Inflation Reduction Act can help.