Val McCullough: Climate change is more than a Sunday/Monday muddle - Loveland Reporter-Herald

Val McCullough: Climate change is more than a Sunday/Monday muddle - Loveland Reporter-Herald

I couldn’t understand why my dentist’s parking lot was empty at 10 a​.m​. Monday morning. His office is in a large medical building.

Why was it empty?

The black asphalt lot — with its neatly paced yellow parking lines — is usually packed with 25 to 30 cars.

What happened?

“Maybe there’s a problem with the building. Maybe the power is down from the storms. Or maybe the dentist has a family emergency,” I mused.

I left the car and walked to the building’s entrance, thinking, “Surely there’s a note on the door.”

No note.

Then it dawned on me. It was Sunday, not Monday. My dental appointment was on Monday.

No wonder the parking lot was empty.

How had I gotten so mixed up?

I cringed, realizing this mistake was not something I could wiggle out of — even in my mind.

Even if I said, “Well, it’s Monday somewhere,” that wouldn’t work.

So, I reminded myself of this hard truth: Sometimes my thinking gets botched up. I was wrong about the day of the week.

At first, I tried to hang on to my version of the truth — something was wrong with the building, or the staff — but not with me.

I didn’t want to admit my mistake.

While my Sunday/Monday muddle didn’t harm anything but my pride, some errors in thinking can harm other people.

I’m thinking about what’s been in the headlines all month — human-caused climate change.

It’s here. And it’s caused by human activity.

We don’t like to accept that our carbon-heavy lifestyles warm our waters and bake sidewalks.

The reasons for this denial are many.

We’re good people, responsible citizens. So it causes stress to admit that our unnecessary plane trips, our Quarter Pounders, kick up the thermometer in our oceans and the air around us.

I’ve been flying since 1952 and have enjoyed meat dishes all my life, so I’m uncomfortable facing these realities.

If my carbon gluttony were a combo burger, I’d have to say, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”

I wish I could undo my past carbon-heavy activities. But I can’t.

I wish the weather extremes were not human-caused.

Just as I couldn’t turn Sunday into Monday, there’s no way of wishing our climate problems away.

It saddens me to think that young people — my kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids — might not enjoy the pleasures I took for granted.

Once again, young people pay for the decisions made by us older adults.

While we can take personal steps to reduce our carbon footprint, we also need Big Oil and Supporters to step up to tamp down the temps.

Readers, do you have suggestions on how to minimize climate change?