DO Look Up

That’s enough entertainment, folks. It’s time to pay attention to the real-life catastrophes approaching.

Listen up, people. The comet in the movie was fictional, but there are lots of absolutely real catastrophes heading for us, and looking down at your phone all the time isn’t helping prevent any of them.*

You say you’re keeping up with the news on your phone? I might buy that if you ever put the damned thing down. But that is not what you are doing most of the time.** No, you are scrolling your social media feed or perhaps you’ve gone down a weird rabbit hole and can now tell anybody who wants to hear (practically nobody, by the way) all about some esoteric thing like the history of casting metal or the secret to really good sourdough bread. (Those are two things I’ll happily chat about all day. Send me a message.)

I don’t practice what I preach, of course. (Preaching is more fun than practicing.) When I die, they’ll have to bury me with my iPhone in my hand, because they’ll be unable to pry it out of my stiff, claw-like grasp without breaking my fingers.

Climate change, the pandemic and the very real risk of the Ukraine war expanding into World War III are the biggies that should be on your radar. But there are plenty of others — many of them somewhat related to one of the current big three. Here’s a non-comprehensive list of the…