‘At first, I thought it was thunder, but soon bombs were raining everywhere. We ran while our home and everything we’ve ever owned was being leveled. But I didn’t cry.‘ (N.S., Syrian-born Christian Kurd, and her family, survived Turkey’s aerial strike).

The Trump-sanctioned Turkey attack on Kurds immediately made the world a more dangerous place. And it showed how a self-deluded president who believes that he has ‘great and unmatched wisdom,’ can actually trigger a global, unpredictable conflict.

Let’s that sink in, while catching up with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. The Swedish Academy mentioned his efforts to end a bloody 20-year war and reestablish relations with neighbor Eritrea as the main reason for the award. But Ahmed’s also been praised for freeing political prisoners and promoting women to his cabinet.

It’s as if it just happened but it was 20 years ago this past Saturday when we reached six billion people. 11 years later another billion had been added, plus the 700 million who showed up since. With Earth’s resources dwindling and the climate spiraling out of control, these newcomers are already aware of what we’ve done with the place and are very angry about it, rightfully so.

These man-made challenges require nothing short of a revolution if we’re to have a shot fighting them. But little has been done, and now there’s another war to stop, income inequality to fight, plus faltering democracies to defend. Thus, yes, let the kids lead.

It’ll be blood, sweat, and tears all over again, that’s for sure. Consider the new research by the Climate Accountability Institute, on the 20 biggest fossil fuel – oil, natural gas, and coal – corporations, that combined have issued since the 1960s 480 billion tons

of methanes and carbon dioxide into the air, water, and land. And continue expanding, despite the increased climate emergency.

Or notice that three global fund asset managers, BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard, own a $300 billion fossil-fuel portfolio, built up from private savings, investments, and pensions of millions of mostly unaware contributors, the Guardian has reported.

Together, these corporations and firms have lobbied and used all means necessary to prevent any action against climate change.

And they’ve got the ears of pretty powerful 0.01 percenters and their ‘sponsored’ elected politicians in Washington, including the president himself. We won’t do much progress if they’re allowed to ignore the citizens’ clamor and keep on ducking regulations.

Speaking of him, Trump’s once again proved that he can’t touch anything without making it worse. The lack of reflexion and prudence of his decisions is staggering and does hurt people. Or kill them. As with the Iranian mistake a few weeks ago, he’s tried to walk back, double down, walk back again, facing the uproar against withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria without a plan.

But then and now, it was too late. Iran’s working toward nuclear capacity, and so is Saudi Arabia, and all because Trump’s ripped an accord that was actually working. But to abandon the allies Kurds to fend Turkish armies on their own is particularly cruel.

It was an appalling act of betrayal of a nation without a land of its own, and whose fighters actually defeated Daesh. Just like in 1988, when the U.S. walked and Saddam Hussein wound up gassing thousands of them, at the end of the Iran-Iraq 20-year war.

This time, they’ve run to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, himself not above gassing foes, for help and, surprise, surprise, Vlad Putin. Perhaps such a development, and the flight from prison of 900-plus ISIS combatants, were all expected by the spymaster. Fact is, the deck is stacked against the U.S., and regrettably, the Kurds’ sweet dreams of freedom are for now postponed. Again.

Note to thyself: if Trump does have an agenda, and somehow provoked this to divert attention from his impeachment process, then stock your shelves full for we’re in it for the long run. And next time he speaks of a ‘beautiful’ deal, hold on to your wallet.

The U.S. has no business messing up with the Middle East, but only a much-needed fossil fuel ban will drive the point home. We always cause more damage than what was there priorly, we don’t understand those countries, and we’ve also failed to inspire their Theocratic regimes to democracy. Maybe is just not up to us or meant to be. (For the record, the opening quote is made up).

Narin Sotoudeh is an Iranian human rights lawyer whose sentence of 38 years in jail, plus 148 lashes, has just been confirmed. Her crime was to exercise her profession, and a campaign is apace to set her free. She and six other women, jailed for advocating civil rights in Iran, are now portrayed on a mural created by artist collective Clarion Alley, in San Francisco’s Mission District.

Finally, it’s now 527 years since Christopher Columbus came to a land he had no idea was part of a much bigger continent and reclaimed it to Spain. That wasn’t to last, though, unlike the genocide of natives which followed it. As it became clear that they were already living here for over 10,000 years before him, today is Indigenous People’s Day, and Columbus Day is no longer.

So, let’s celebrate the thousands of tribes who occupied this land without destroying it, polluting it, or bringing it to the verge of annihilation, something we managed to accomplish in just a couple of centuries. But let’s not forget Columbus for he is us. To reverse climate change will require a different mindset, one that we’re still to learn and indigenous people have plenty of. Cheers WC