As usual, time seems to spin rapidly away and the silent tick-tock of the digital clock reminds me that the "now" has turned its back and marched resolutely into the mists of the "past".
So, the time has come for me to stop bleating impotently about the dire state of the climate change.. and actually try to DO something about it. While it still seems an almost futile gesture - have decided to sign up for the "Trees for Life" program.
There is a very strong organisation for it here in South Australia, but I understand it is also World-wide, so if anyone is interested, there should be someone "local". (click the title .. Update; Sunday 8th. apparently the organisation is not as widespread as first thought.)
It's a six month commitment beginning in October each year so hope that am still around to see it through.
Some time ago I asked the question "Why is it not possible to find a way of pumping CO2 gas through a catalytic solution to convert the gas into Carbon and Oxygen?" but was thinking more along the lines of chemical engineering. Trees do it all the time.
Methinks that not only do we 'produce' CO2 at a great rate, we are also "de-foresting" and destroying the only natural "carbon scrubbers".
I can't go to the Amazon or Borneo to stand in front of the bulldozers, but I CAN try to grow a few more alveoli for the "Lungs of the Earth".
Just one small step.
7 comments:
We had an opposition member complaining the other day about water restrictions because the lawns might die (sorry about your mowing business) but they grow back if it rains. It broke my heart to have to cut down five of my trees but they were too big for a suburban block and now the others have a better chance to survive. I think it's going to be a hot summer and I'll be hand watering.
mm, am looking toward a very bleak summer this year. Normally the lawns would be inches high by now, and I could worrrk my little butt off from dawn 'til dusk trying to catch up with finances. This year .. nothing, lawns are already parched.
In Melbourne we're looking at a mini heatwave next week because of hot north winds from central Australia.
Get used to it .. find ways to survive. It's going to be a long, hot, summer.
being extremely lazy, When I bought my 2 1/2 acres, I cut down just enough trees to site a house, a well and a septic system. I still have over 2 acres of trees I don't need to replace. I round up the ash, hickory, oak and chestnut seeds this time of year for a rather strange gardening idea: I will grow walking sticks. Only takes 4 to 6 years, needs little space and unlike my firewood, the carbon is sequestered in a closet or some such place and not burnt back into the sky. Damn walking sticks cost up to $30 for the plainest and I can get lucky with the odd roots that grow on some of'm. We also have "big leaf" aspen that grow like absolute weeds and from one tree the sneaked in with some fill dirt, have planted themselves all over. These grow the fastest by far though they don't live to the 200yr you can get from a well situated oak.
But I should look up your tree planting org since I might learn a thing or two.
Greensmile, you are, of course, extremely fortunate to be living where you are, and can afford to be somewhat saunguine about it, I s'pose. Have just been listening to the "Country Hour" on radio and have to say that the drought here is widespread - in some places no rain for 6 years. Australia, apparently, is the driest continent, and South Aust is the driest state in that continent, and has just had the driest winter on record. Very few crops this year. The irony is that wheat prices are going through the roof - if anybody had any to sell - so it will be the Wall Street Marketeers who will make squillions while Australian farmers starve, and our already overblown "balance of payments" makes a further mockery of out wee Johnnies "hey, the economy is strong" bleats. heh. ("We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan, in accents most forlorn ..)
I grew up on a farm. My dad wanted to be a farmer and took 15 years of abuse from weather and markets before he finally threw in the towel. The difference between a good year and a bad year was pretty much what you are describing: great weather gets everyone a bumper crop and lousy prices, bad weather makes it barely worth the diesel to run the harvester but your measely 1/2 ton of grain does fetch a handsome price. Its a life that veers wildly between famine and famine. The best year we ever had was 1955 when a flood destroyed his entire crop and the crop insurance paid off. Most years the bank loans for seed and equipment were so hard to carry that we'd forego the insurance. Yep, quite a business that farming.
El Nino is making for a wet south east US and drought in the west...and we have had another record year for forest fires to underscore how dry things are.
the climate models predicted the N. E. states would hold steady on precipitation and that prediction is ,very roughly, holding up. It hurts me to see places that take years to build up a modest cover of vegitation burn off: we lose so much when that happens.
Post a Comment