Friday, March 23, 2012

Another Dry Spring, Another Drought in Britain

So everyone knows there is a drought in the South-East of Britain. It gets more and more common, although this year they are expecting the worst one since 1976. A hose pipe ban will be coming in soon in most areas, and there is no sign of rain for a long time, which is very obvious if you study the surface pressure forecast maps. The low-pressure, wet weather systems that normally pass through Britain and the Netherlands at this time of year are whizzing over Iceland instead. This means the Arctic gets more warmth and rain, and the Arctic warming and melting is speeding up.

What gets me are the increasing frequency of dry spring seasons. The saying, April showers bring May flowers has so quickly become meaningless. Last year, March AND April were so horribly dry, that farms and people planting seeds in spring had to worry, worry, worry. Then May was full of rain. Seeing that the seasons are different, it still bothers me even though I understand what is happening. Memories of more normal seasons sit there, feeling uneasy when they are not reassured by what they see. In spring this matters the most, because spring is the season that we look forward to while surviving through the dull, dark, depressing, grey winters.

Nobody bangs on about climate change any more. Five years ago, they were shouting about climate disasters. Of course, you assume that when a disaster happens, it appears suddenly, say within a year or two. What we forget is that a disaster can take 30 years to gradually happen. Is it a disaster when it takes so long to unfold? For human beings, whom already have all the knowledge and power they need to control their environment and seize ever more land and sea to bring under their control, 30 years is not a disaster. We are in a disaster now, but the disaster is for other living things, not for human beings.  Human beings are adapting, by stealing ever more of the planet from other living things.   So the selfish humanists do not worry too much about climate change, if they have enough time to adapt things for human beings. This is sad, but true. When something is true, and all you can do is be sad, then you might as well write about it, for the benefit of posterity?  Or you can have a funeral, in your mind, for all the living things that will lose out to human beings during their climate disaster.