The Work Of Heroes

I woke up this morning with visions of super heroic battles dancing in my head. Eleven years after it began, we reached the Endgame. How many times has the planet and other chunks of the universe been saved by these costumed avengers? Lost track somewhere around 2015 myself, but each challenge grew larger and each bad guy got a little badder. Which is why as the years passed, the team grew. The stakes were raised, so they needed an infusion of strength and talent. When some great big dullard showed up who could remove half the living creatures everywhere, we had arrived at a challenge that was up to the abilities of this periodically conflicted group. 
It was superfan Neil DeGrasse Tyson who wondered on Twitter, "If you wield the power to snap your finger and end half of all life in the universe — to preserve resources for those who remain — then you surely have the power to snap your finger and double the resources instead.@Avengers, I checked the math on that one." Pretty snappy answer for an astrophysicist who seems to delight in spoiling movies with science, but it does leave out one important issue: The big purple guy who snaps his fingers is not a good guy. He is evil, and his answer to a problem does not come from a place of forgiveness or happy coincidence. Which is a little like telling refugees at your border, "Sorry, our country is full." Or suggesting that the solution to our energy crisis is to turn back the clock and start mining more of that good clean coal.
Which brings me to the work my wife does: trying to save the planet from the parasitic creatures that seem to be bent on destroying it. She, along with a groundswell of like-minded humans who would like to keep the planet on which they were born and raised have decided to promote science and change in order to save the earth. A Green New Deal. It doesn't come with caped crusaders bounding from one part of the galaxy to another, but it does come with a chance to save the planet. Without any super powers. Unless you count making some sacrifices and working together as a super power. In which case it's time to give your tights a tug and start to imagine a world with clean water for everyone, healthy and affordable food for everyone, and access to nature. It won't be just a snap of the fingers, but it can be done.
We just need to use our powers for good, and not evil.