We recently returned from a trip to France, which included a visit to the wine region of Bordeaux. Producers seemed pleased with the unprecedented stretch of warm vintages in the past decade or two, allowing ideal ripening at harvest almost every year– something that happened only infrequently, forty or fifty years ago. A few vignerons were willing to admit that in some years the extreme heat had caused over-ripening, yielding unbalanced wines with very high alcohol levels and low acidity. Although preferring to focus only on the positive aspects of climate change, not one producer failed to mention, with great concern, the dangers of the long-ongoing drought.
One week after leaving Bordeaux, we heard from friends that the temperature there had risen to 108 degrees Fahrenheit. Mounting fatalities brought to mind especially hot years like 2003. In the past week, wildfires thirty miles southwest of our hotel have displaced thousands, under unusual conditions of strong gusty winds, dangerously-high temperatures and tinder-dry forests.
And today, many all-time heat records will be broken again: Paris will reach 106, London 104, areas in Spain and Portugal 115 degrees. Flights have been canceled for melting tarmacs at airports. North Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East are all roasting. Drought and wildfires are widespread. This country has joined in, especially Texas at 115 degrees, Oklahoma, Arkansas and up into the Midwest and Northeast.
In the news, right next to stories of heat-related disasters, runs a headline announcing that Senator Joe Manchin– whom I think of as the Trojan Horse of West Virginia– has scuttled the Democrats’ plan to combat climate change by decreasing carbon emissions and developing sources of renewable energy. Whether he is driven by ego, financial conflicts of interest (i.e. ownership in a coal-mining company that he helped to found), donor money from the fossil fuel industry, or the delusion that mining coal has a real future in this country, Sen. Manchin keeps pushing to delay climate action, even though it is widely understood that time is rapidly running out.
Coming back from our relaxed pace in Europe, we were immediately swamped by the maelstrom of events in the US: the reversal of Roe by an aggressively partisan Supreme Court, followed by horror stories of women (and even a 10-year-old girl) struggling to receive medical care; as usual, death threats issued all around; the expansion of gun rights and undermining of gun safety laws by the same Supreme Court; the shock of multiple mass shootings (over 350 so far, this year) at schools, shopping malls and a 4th of July parade; and the rapid rise of the highly-infectious Covid variant BA.5, followed by an uptick in hospitalizations and deaths. Vaccination rates remain pitifully inadequate, given our resources. On top of all this, the January 6th committee has revealed how close our democracy came to falling off a cliff, and Republicans in Congress still refuse to stand up for what they must know is right. And all people can think about, quite understandably, is the high price of gas and food.
I just finished reading Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile, which covers the first year that Winston Churchill served as Prime Minister: the critical stretch between May 1940 and May 1941: a year of major setbacks for the the British Navy and merchant shipping, Dunkirk, withdrawals from British holdings around the world, and nightly bombing raids over London and other cities, all to devastating effect. By now, it’s a well-worn story. Through personal courage and perseverance, a keen sense of international relations, the ability to overcome bureaucratic and political resistance, and legendary oratorical skills, Churchill managed to cut through immensely complex barriers and, to put it simply, made things happen. He saw an existential crisis for his country and did not hesitate to do what was needed.
Coming under fierce criticism by some members of the House of Commons in 1941, he responded:
“When I look back on the perils which have been overcome, upon the great mountain waves in which the gallant ship has driven, when I remember all that has gone wrong, and remember also all that has gone right, I feel sure we have no need to fear the tempest. Let it roar, and let it rage. We shall come through.” His audience erupted in cheers, and Churchill went on to win a critical vote of confidence.
Touring bombed-out cities like Coventry and visiting with survivors, the Prime Minister was greeted with joyous cries of “Winnie! Winnie!” He had a way of projecting his own courage and empathy, which, spreading outward, sustained the people in their darkest hour. This at a time when Hitler and Goebbels expected, in vain, that each massive raid by the Luftwaffe would finally crush British morale.
What would Winnie say in today’s complex world and its equivalent of the Battle of Britain? Would he refer to a “Putin gas tax?” Would he say, “There’s only so much a President can do?” Would he compromise on opening up new oil drilling sites? Would he keep playing the cat-and-mouse game with Joe Manchin? Would he let Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy or even, heaven forbid, someone as miserable as Ted Cruz stand in the way of taking on a worldwide existential crisis while the clock ticks down? As Churchill said to a Washington, DC crowd in 1941, while attending the lighting of the National Christmas tree with President Franklin Roosevelt:
“Let the children have their night of fun and laughter… Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures…” (Lowering his voice to a growl) “… before we turn again to the stern tasks and formidable year that lie before us. Resolve!– that by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.”
Where is today’s Churchill? Who on the current political stage will make things happen and do what is needed, regardless of keeping their job after the next election? The world of future generations is truly at stake, and we want our Winnie!
Fourth World 