Occidental Oriented by Gino Gaffney — April 2020

Happy 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22nd!

Good day to you, dear reader. I hope this column finds you safe, healthy and maintaining a high level of personal sanity in this currently insane world we find ourselves in.

As of this writing we are one week into the “shelter in place” orders, with no end in sight. All those around me are adhering to the requirements as closely as possible, and all seem to be in good health. I know that is part of the frightfulness of this disease and the importance of social distancing. People who look and feel healthy can actually be carrying around the virus for many days with no symptoms, potentially infecting anyone they come into contact with.

Between the postponement or cancellation of every event locally and worldwide there really isn’t much news to report currently. Things are changing so quickly that even if I provided a list of businesses that remain open it could very likely be vastly different by the time you read this article. Please do your best to support our local business owners whether they are currently open or not. Take the time to reach out to friends, neighbors and family members if nothing else just to say hi.

I had a friend call me yesterday and I immediately realized how much I was missing social interaction even if we couldn’t be face to face. I am a generally positive person and I don’t live alone. I love where I live and have an endless number of projects around the home and property to keep me busy. And yet, just the sound of a friendly voice on the other end of the phone really made my day. Thank you, Kai,!

I read an article in the PD in the last couple of months talking about the noticeable improvement of China’s air quality due to the shutdown of many factories in response to the Corona virus. At the time, the disease hadn’t yet become a big issue here in the states, freeing my mind to wander towards a positive outlook view of a silver (clear?) lining to the gray (black?) cloud of the effects of this disease on their polluted country. The earth itself is not affected by rates of infection or mortality numbers in human populations but our emissions certainly do bear tangible results in myriad ways large and small across the globe.

When we shut down our industries the earth and all her inhabitants are able to breathe a little easier, an undeniably good thing for however long it lasts. Also, an interesting crossroads for humanity as the shutdown wreaks havoc on our economic health, yet helps us in our fight against a respiratory illness wreaking havoc on our lungs.

I am a pretty big sports fan, it’s in my blood. I have some level of interest, from mild to passionate in just about every sport out there. I have no idea what Cricket is about, but it sure is interesting to see. I have zero interest in watching cars drive in circles all day, but I do appreciate the engineering that goes into a race car, and the brutal precision it takes to drive one.

As the climate crisis has become ever more dire in the last few years, I have begun to question the polluting nature of sports more and more. Whether it’s the auto fuel burned as the cars go round and round, or the jet fuel as the planes transport players of every sport around the world and back again — there is no way around the fact that our sports obsession has a pretty large carbon footprint.

With the current shutdown of the sporting world I am saddened to not see Liverpool wrapping up its first premier league title in 30 years, Steph Curry getting to play with Andrew Wiggins and sow the seeds of next year’s return to glory, and the biggest and most recent development — the postponement of the Olympics until next year.

That said, I am definitely watching less TV which is not a bad thing. I am spending more time reading, which is certainly a good thing. I can’t help but wonder how much our global carbon footprint has been lowered by the lack of sports, certainly the equivalent of at least a few factories or power plants. It would be interesting to see a study of the numbers and maybe we can look at trimming a few games from the season, a few miles from the race or make some other effort to lower emissions going forward — unlike the crazy NFL wanting to add games to their schedule.

Goodbye for now, till we meet again dear reader – at a 6’ distance.