Panic Button

With all the news stories lately about global warming, and damage to infrastructure as a result of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, it's easy to get desensitized.  Right?  The Independent's story reports that parts of Germany's Autobahn were reduced to (the equivalent of) 60 mph, due to deteriorating road surfaces.

Ooo, shivers.  One more time.

Deteriorating road surfaces.

And cue R.E.M.

Unless you're a certain Doc Brown and you "don't need roads," this could already hint at a time where moving goods about the country (like oh say, food) may become impossible overnight.  Make that overday. And, as hot as the current heat wave is, scientists are saying it's going to get hotter.  Infrastructure that is already breaking down will break down more, faster.  Fixing it will become almost as important as trying to protect the new (and existing) roads, bridges, and especially, das Autobahn.

I say break out the gold foil.

Have you ever wondered why the Apollo Lunar Lander (LEM) was wrapped in what looks like gold foil?  Not just parts of it - the whole thing looks like it's a Thanksgiving day parade float.  Why? Scientists anticipated the extreme heat (250 degrees Fahrenheit) that the lander would encounter on the moon, and used the foil to insulate the skin of the lander, partly to protect it from the sun's heat.  If they hadn't done that, the lander would have been damaged by the sun.  It would have deteriorated.  Warped.  Melted, maybe.  Become unusable.

As more people wake up to this reality - that we're headed toward a future where it's going to be like living on the moon, with stuff we've built that's only good for the Earth as we know it, I believe a sense of panic will grow.  And that is when the Panic Button will simply be a Donate Button, that everyone on Earth can push to help solve the largest crisis in our history.  It's not quite there yet, this mythical button.  That's because there's no global-scale operation to solve the problem of warming by (for example) removing excess C02 from the atmosphere.  Yet.

But I believe there will be.  And when it's there, Fishbowl Earth will put up shiny, gold foil Donate buttons everywhere, to collect money for the only cause that (we think) will end up mattering, in the...end.