BY BOB D. ROUNSAVELL

This title has more than one application. Our planet is currently threatened by two heinous man-made problems, both with the potential of wiping out life on earth, including us humans.

The first – climate change – is brought on primarily by persons who have chosen to get wealthy utilizing energy that pollutes our environment and thus lead to devastating effects.

Likewise, the pandemic caused by the heretofore unknown coronavirus may kill us all before we can know its true nature and control it. Both of these challenges to life will only be overcome if and when we humans get together and overcome them.

So how did we get to this crisis stage? It officially began on the first day of the Donald Trump presidency. On his inauguration he proclaimed that he would not only minimize the use of science but might totally ban its use. He has done quite a good job, I think.

Rather than utilize man’s greatest tool of analysis to solve problems, the Trump administration chooses to depend only on those people who will carry out his wishes, as his employees did for him as corporate executive. His first official act was abrogating the treaty with Iran which Secretary of State John Kerry in the Obama presidency had negotiated with hardliners to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. His second presidential action was on the global Paris Protocol, which the whole world had been toiling on to prevent climate change or global warming created by greenhouse gas emissions since at least the Clinton presidency. These two presidential moves have led to abandoning U.S. leadership in global initiatives despite the nation’s responsibility as the sole military superpower, making the world far more dangerous.

President Trump has totally politicized the government with unqualified people interested only in accomplishing what he asks of them. These choices have not been designed to actually solve national problems, but rather to carry out his wishes. U.S. policy is mostly designed to look and become an expression of Donald Trump’s view of reality. And that adds up to one holy mess that will ultimately bring down the world, not just the U.S.

My hope is that we elect a new president more knowledgeable about the two impending disasters and more interested in preventing them for our greater good.

So where do we go from here?

There really is only one answer. In November, vote for the U.S. and a better world. Otherwise the future will be very uncomfortable. To me, that vote is for Joe Biden and the Democratic slate for the U.S. Congress, in the House and the Senate.

America needs to be the world’s best democracy once again. If not, we will find ourselves citizens without any basic rights such as a free press empowered to keep us well informed by presenting accurate information daily.

Second, we must resolve our immigration problem once and for all lest we see a serious loss of diversity in our population. Women must be granted human rights so they can be fully productive and provide us their wisdom and smarts. So must citizens of color be enabled and nurtured to do the same from a totally different perspective, that of the hardest hit bearers of climate change outcomes.

There are many hard choices ahead, but there’s really only one solution that will extend life on planet earth. Until and unless we all pull together in the same direction, there will be no future worth living. The president and his cohort are wishing for a different outcome. A life worth living is worth far more than any money offer.

It’s all about us and how we treat one another and the world. Let us then pull together for a better life. It’s all of us or none of us. Our children and grandchildren demand the right decision from all of us.

Oologah resident Bob D. Rounsavell currently serves as chairman of the Eastern Flyer Coalition of communities between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. His wife Maria serves as his editor.