The United States Of Denial

Refusing to see the truth is hastening our collapse

Photo by tom coe on Unsplash

Another “once in a generation” weather event strikes the United States in December 2022.

This time, at the holidays, thousands of flights are canceled, stranding travelers all over North America. They cry out on social media — on TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter — lamenting this latest twist of fate. Of bad luck.

Too few reflect on the causes or implications.

That the extreme polar vortex has been caused by climate change. That climate change has upended the typical patterns of the jet stream, drawing the polar vortex far below its normal range.

That staffing shortages caused by COVID have depleted the available personnel to deal with any stresses to the airline system.

That airlines’ underinvestment in technology and systems, in redundancy and business continuity, and in customer service make rebounding from the falling dominoes of the holiday travel crisis harder. Impossible, even, leaving people stuck until 2023.

That all of these problems are interconnected.

We live in an era of escalating risk, particularly in America. Climate change, COVID, historic levels of income inequality, rising fascism, wars, economic volatility, accelerating racism and ableism, mass…