Post from the Green Tortoise

I'm going camping tomorrow! Shall be away from civilization (well sorta - first night we're going to be at Las Vegas), or the online world anyway, so I'm putting down a post right now to appease my hordes of readers who hopefully will not suffer from withdrawal symptoms while I'm gone.

San Francisco has been great. I'm sharing the room with a writer guy who sold all of his possessions after spending 65 years accumulating them. We share a bunk bed, he sleeps on the lower bunk. He has nightmares every night involving scumbags and fuckers. I know that because he yells threats and insults at them in his sleep. It is definitely a very interesting way to wake up, and my only regret is that I am unable to recall any of his colourful monologues because I go back to sleep and forget everything. Damn.

So Peter the Writer is a member of the Asian Art Museum, so I was his guest for today and managed to get in for free. I am proud to say that I have not paid for any museums in the US so far, amazingly. I've always been able to freeload one way or another. In New York it was Jian Hui with his corporate passes, that got me into The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). (I was even able to pawn one extra ticket at the Met Museum that Jian Hui gave me for $10 - half price - the French family was happy, I was happy.)

Then in San Francisco, on Wednesday, coincidentally it was the third Wednesday of the month and the free day of California Academy of Sciences. I had to queue for 2 hours to get in though. It was insane, probably the longest queue I've ever queued at, ever. I reached the Academy at 9:20am, it starts at 9:30am. By the time I got to the end of the queue, according to the guy who was standing there counting the people that were in the line, there were about 2,700 people in front of me. I only got to see the actual building after 1 hour of being in the queue. The family behind me was very entertaining though, and I spent the best part of the two hours just eavesdropping on their conversations.

Hmm they're going to have Beer Olympics in the Green Tortoise Hostel, but I'm not really in the mood to drink tonight so I'm actually going to commit the sacrilege of saying no to free beer. A polar bear probably died somewhere in response. Oh wait - that wasn't me. That was CLIMATE CHANGE!!! I was reading The Drug Issue by the San Francisco Bay Guardian (a whole issue laced with articles on substances that make you high, no shit, SF is cool like that) and there was this advertisement inside by the Republicans, I assume, since they were dissing Obama and the Democrats, that actually claims that manmade global warming is a scam. I think my blood pressure rose significantly.

If any of these people behind the ad actually took the trouble to queue for 2 hours like I did to enter the California Academy of Sciences (for free, since they sound like cheapskates who wouldn't pay 20 bucks to go into a museum) they would know that manmade global warming is scientifically proven and we are this close to crossing the threshold of no return. Mass extinction would occur. This is not the first time that mass extinction has occurred because of climate change, it would be the 6th. But all the consumption of humankind has caused unprecedented levels of carbon dioxide which positively correlates with rising temperatures. In other words, we are causing this.

Think of all the problems that rising temperatures would cause. Some examples: changes in migratory patterns, destruction of sensitive ecosystems, ocean warming, rising sea levels, extreme weather conditions, better environments for mosquitoes and diseases that they spread... the list goes ON AND ON. And these people have the cheek to deny everything.

Oh yeah. The ice caps on Mount Kilimanjaro are going to be gone by 2020. Catch them while you can.

*deep breaths*

OK the rant has ruined my mood somewhat. I shall stop here.