A Cask of Amontillado and A Children’s Wall on Climate Change
Real Reason for the US-Viet Nam War
Free weekly newsletter
Publication: periodic, some weekends, some Saturdays by 9 a.m. East Coast US time. Editions may cover (1) the hidden 1870s–1954 US colonial period in Viet Nam; (2) a common pattern of racism in that hidden, early US activity in Viet Nam and in US society; and (3) the inadequate response by government to the threat of climate change.
Prior issues may be viewed at https://briandroesch.substack.com/
Cites for some facts are in Roesch, B. (2021). Corporate Tsunami in Countryside Paradise: 1875–1900 Origin of US War in Viet Nam, First Edition Revised. See briandroesch.com
A Cask of Amontillado and A Children’s Wall on Climate Change
Climate change requires action “to prevent climate hell." US President Joe Biden said that in a November 2022 speech at COP 27. He pointed to “harbingers that are already here."[i]
That future “hell” carries a higher risk of killing today’s children, than it brings of killing today’s adults. Indeed, a recent UNICEF statement says: “Climate change will fundamentally alter Earth’s climate system in many ways that threaten children’s physical and mental wellbeing.”
What do children think about such a future danger, as they see climate change worsening, but they realize that the US government and others are failing to take emergency action?
Children at their Guatemala home after a 2020 hurricane affected by climate change
Credit: UNICEF[i]
Rather than respond as if this is a dire emergency for life itself, the US government plans to allow some more fossil fuel development. This would lessen the effects of efforts to curb climate change. For example, when the polar ice is gone, that tipping point cannot be cured.
An ounce of prevention now is worth a pound of cure later. As the Union of Concerned Scientists’ policy director and lead economist for the Climate and Energy Program, Rachel Cleetus observes, President Biden’s COP27 speech "comes at a time when the urgency of the climate crisis is clear, but so is the significant shortfall in actions to address it. . . .”
Zero US Republican senators voted for even a watered-down, inadequate federal law for $30 billion per year for the US to address climate change. Much more money is available. This is shown by: (1) over $700 billion per year for the US defense budget; (2) About $50 billion in damage in one day by Hurricane Ian, caused by climate change; and (3) at least $1 billion in damage in 15 weather and climate disasters so far in 2022.[iii]
Penny-wise but pound-foolish.
Threatening children’s “mental wellbeing”. Warnings are increasing. UNICEF points out that climate events “will . . . threaten children’s physical and mental wellbeing.” What are children today thinking about adults failing to take emergency action to try to curb climate change? Children are not stupid. Children learn that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Literature, drawing on emotions generated in real life, gives US adults an example of how some children may feel upon realizing the US government has been failing to take adequate action to attempt to curb climate change. A window into a person experiencing an increasing realization of horror appears in Edgar Allan Poe’s tale, “The Cask of Amontillado.” A drunken Fortunato ventures into underground wine vaults in the catacombs of an estate, to give his friend an expert opinion on whether a recently acquired wine really is a true cask of Amontillado.
After they enter a crypt, Fortunato peers into the darkness, then realizes his “friend” has just now chained him to a granite surface and is putting up a stone and mortar wall, blocking Fortunato from escaping. Safe beyond the wall, the friend hears Fortunato make a “low moaning,” then a “furious clanking of the chain,” yells, clamor, silence, then “a low laugh,” “a sad voice,” and silence.[iv]
Like Fortunato in the “Cask of Amontillado,” children of today are realizing that “friendly” adults are irrevocably chaining them behind a wall of climate change. As the adults grow older and prepare to leave this earthly life, a recent sign lets them read a first emotion, like Fortunato’s “low moaning,” in the progression of emotions among children as the climate wall solidifies. That sign is held by a youth, who, like Fortunato, is realizing the effect of the stone-and-mortar-like wall of climate change.
Sign held by youth at a climate change demonstration
Credit: pexels.com
What will be the children’s final lamentation? Will it be “yells”? Or “low moaning”? Or will it be a word to match the evil of adults who failed to take emergency action? As Professor Noam Chomsky points out:
Professor Noam Chomsky saying no word exists in English to describe some adults on climate change
[i] https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/11/11/biden-cop27-pledges-called-band-aid-damage-threatens-our-collective-future?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter
Common Dreams 11 November, 2022
UNICEF. April 27, 2020. https://gdc.unicef.org/resource/children-and-climate-change
[ii] Guatemala photo. https://www.unicef.org/stories/impacts-climate-change-put-almost-every-child-risk
[iii] Disasters in 2022. https://www.noaa.gov/news/ian-is-15th-billion-dollar-disaster-year-so-far
[iv] Poe story. Poe, E. (2013). Edgar Allen Poe: Complete Tales and Poems. Maplewood Books, Kindle location 4924–5012.