It's Sunday April 14th and I'm putting on some classics on YouTube
I'm on the couch, coding this website and putting on some of my favorite songs. While I'm putting some music, I remember a discussion with a friend and a new friend, after a Royal Blood concert. I've developed a very high attraction towards the song Jeremy by Pearl Jam, and I'd rather not repeat the words that triggered the discussion but my friends said that Do the Evolution by Pearl Jam is arguably their best song. Let me warn you, this post is about climate change and evolution. It escalates quite quickly I think.
LPs and Turntables
Okay I lied, actually this blog post begins because I was listening to an LP I have of Pearl Jam and as I listen to Jeremy I remember the discussion. Once I finished listening to the LP, I thought: "Well, I do love Do the Evolution, I'm starting a podcast that highlights sustainable start ups and people, it's only suiting." By the way, I don't know if it's the classic feel to it but listening to music on a turntable makes it sound better, haha.
Anyways, I start playing the song and put the video as well, because as my friend said: "The video is just f**cking great and makes the song a thousand times better". It clearly was a shared opinion. The song is absolutely amazing but the video makes it just more appropiate to the badass grunge that's playing.
Concerned about Doing the Evolution
less than 30 seconds into the video and my headbanging rocker self starts to become anxious and concerned. See, I live in Colombia´s capital, Bogotá, even though I'm from Medellín. I've always considered my self lucky because I could drink tap water as our water is completely drinkable. So I thought. Unfortunately, as the earth was gotten warmer, Medellín is no longer "La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera" or "The City of the Eternal Spring", but rather a beachless coastal city. With it's average temperature increasing by 5-7 degrees, it's become unbearably hot.
And just on April 11th, Bogotá required water rationing because the water reserves of the city are near depleting. NEAR DEPLETING!! Do you know what that means?! It means that Bogotá has 54 days left of water. That's not even 2 months. You know what makes it worst, these news came out like a couple of weeks ago. In other words, our leaders prefer giving us bad news when there is almost no way back. I feel like I won't be able to evolve as fast, I might be a species that just won't make it any further in this heating planet.
I hate the Heat, Not the Miami Heat
Ever since I was little I've loved cold weather. As a child my dad would take me for holidays to this hometown, Jericó. Without going too much into detail, I absolutely loved this town. Especially because of the cold, I'd love waking up at 6am just to see the fog. I didn't feel scared for the lack of visibility, on the contrary, I felt great and cozy. I've lived in coastal cities/towns like Turbo, Antioquia, Colombia and Hallandale Beach, Florida. I hated the heat, I hated sweating, and it just frustrated me incredibly not being able to control my body temperature. Yeah, yeah, I know sweat is the way we control heat, but sometimes it isn't enough.
I left my home city, Medellín, at 25 for better job opportunities and after freelancing for quite a while, I have the opportunity to leave but I just can't get myself to leave because I love Bogotá's weather. But lately it's not recognizeable. By the way, I'm 29, so in just 4 years Bogotá's weather went from my Goldylocks perfect weather to almost as stressful as Medellín's weather. 4 years is nothing and to be honest, things seem to be accelarating, global conflicts and extreme weather conditions seem to be escalating exponentially. I hate the heat, not the team, and I can't help myself to think, is there something that can be done?
Concluding this Story
Well to conclude, while I watched the accelerating video of Do the Evolution by Pearl Jam I thought that it is even better than I initially gave it credit and I already loved the song. The song/video seems fitting to what is happening in the world right now and I'm afraid we are not evolving fast enough. I'm not saying we need to adapt to the horrendous world we've been building, but rather evolve to stop this progression towards climate destruction and overall social destruction. I think and feel, that it'll come a time where our leaders will say there are 54 days left of water and we just won't be able to evolve to live without water and then it'll be too late.
