Out of Left Field: Just a few minues from doomsday

Michael Dinnocenzo

Writers are advised not to use such dire terms.

All of us have a strong inclination to denial.  A book published during the past year speaks powerfully to our capacity to avoid realities when they are not immediately visible.

Sara and Jack Gorman appropriately entitled their study: “Denying to the Grave: Why We Ignore the Facts That Will Save Us.”

During Earth Day commemorations of 2017, it behooves us to recognize that we now face a double threat to human demise and extinction.

It was bad enough in 1981 when the extraordinary Jonathan Schell wrote “The Fate of the Earth” about the increasing danger of nuclear war.

Schell’s book inspired the amazing citizens’ protest rally on June 12, 1982 in Central Park.

I was there along with many Long Islanders, including the late Don and Doris Schaeffer (long-time leaders of SANE), and other Great Neck folks, Shirley and Stan Romaine, continuing leaders of Peace Action and the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives.

These exceptional North Shore citizens joined hundreds of our fellow Long Islanders; they not only protested, but they were keenly aware that demonstrations needed to have staying power in order to affect policy, values and conduct.

Our efforts, through PSR (led for years by Dr. Ron Stritzler of Roslyn Heights), and other groups in Nassau and Suffolk, contributed to the work of International Physicians to Prevent Nuclear War, helping to achieve the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 — and, then, to changes in the nuclear language and conduct of President Reagan.

Now, for this year’s Earth Day, we have expanded warnings of severe dangers that we all face.

Are you aware that scientists have now moved “The Doomsday Clock” to 2 and ½ minutes to midnight?

This is one of the most dangerous settings ever because it includes the re-emergence of nuclear danger combined with mounting environmental urgencies.

Because water is not coming out of our faucets yellow or black, we are less inclined to pay close attention to unseen calamitous threats that can either produce sudden destruction or erode our life environment, sometimes slowly, but, inexorably, decisively.

Jonathan Schell was inspired by Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.”

There are significant parallels in their approach.

Most fundamental is the view that enough people need to be willing to enter a hell of the imagination in order to recognize the severity of our dangers so that they can help others to develop the will to organize and act for human global survival.

Fortunately, there are folks with passion and perspicacity who are speaking and writing about our double dangers.

Several Long Islanders and I heard one of them a week ago.

Jeffrey Sachs, spoke with passion and insight on “A Brighter Way Forward.”

He did not spare grim and alarming data for a standing room only gathering at the sparkling, humanistic Soka Gakki International Center in Manhattan.

However, to a series of thunderous standing ovations, Professor Sachs, like Schell and Rachel Carson before him, offered paths for survival and human betterment.

Everyone with whom I spoke left energized and resolved to speak and take action to face our challenges — and the lack of leadership from current officeholders.

“Sustainable development is our generation’s moon shot,” Sachs told the audience with confidence that American citizens have the ability to accomplish great things. [Your local groups could invite Dr. Sachs to speak about the 2015 UN’s “Sustainable Development Goals: 17 Goals to Transform Our World.”]

This occasion reminded me of my friend Peter Joseph.

With his dad, Dr. Rudolph Joseph, Peter was co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility on Long Island in the early 1980s.  I always felt that it was appropriately symbolic that Peter has worked for so many years as an Emergency Room doctor.

In recent years, Dr. Peter Joseph has been a perfect person to confront the Doomsday Clock as he works to protect the environment and to prevent the expansion and use of nuclear weapons.

Hofstra University’s Center for Civic Engagement and its Institute for Peace Studies are addressing both of these urgent issues.

In this holiday season of Passover and Easter more people are rallying to Pope Francis call: “LAUDATO SI” — one world with a common life.”

Consider taking “one small step” for human kind; join us Saturday, April 22 for the “March for Science” in Manhattan — a global movement to support and expand the role of science in health, environment, government and society [meet up and other info: Hofstra.edu/earthday]

I hope to see you there for the 9:30 start.

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