Frozen Pond
This is a photo (from 2002) of a frozen pond (or small lake) at a place called Stanborough Park in the town of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. My family and I used to live near these lakes, and often walked our dog down to the lakes and back to our house. The entire white expanse in the photo is frozen water, as far as the eye can see.
As I write this post, winter draws to a close in Australia, where my family and I currently live. We are reflecting on what we have felt to be the coldest winter we have enjoyed in the fourteen years of us living in Australia. That said, this last winter season in Australia was nothing compared to the sub-zero temperatures we experienced when we lived in the UK.
In this post, I reflect on climate because, as I write, Canada is burning. Since March of 2023 Canada has been enduring the worst wildfires recorded in its history. In parallel to the Canadian fires, in early August 2023, the US state of Hawaii experienced a series of wildfires - the worst ever recorded in that state - causing extensive damage and the death of over 100 people.
At the same time as the record fires in Canada and Hawaii, the continent of Europe experienced its hottest ever summer with record temperatures soaring since early July 2023. This weather effect was named the "Cerberus" heatwave, so named after the multi-headed fire-breating hound of Hades (or hell). Isn't that symbolism clever and cute?
The above weather effects are not new; it's just that us humans have a very short attention span and seem to very quickly wipe our memories more often than we should. Climate change is nothing new, and has been increasingly worsening over the last thirty years.
It's not going to simply stop or change for the better. We - the human race - have to act to make the change. But let's be honest - nobody is going to do it. We're all going to carry on like it's someone else's responsibility. Then when it all "blows up in our face" and massess of people run around screaming in a panic (like the unfortunate residents of Pompeii when it got blasted by a volcanic eruption), we can all ignorantly whine: Why is this happening? How did this happen?
Aren't we all a bunch of dumb-asses?
Wake up people!! Climate change is here and, if left unchecked, it will result in environmental destruction that causes crop and livestock shortages. It will also cause water shortages. When that happens, maybe for a short while, the very wealthy will hoard all food and water while they watch the less wealthy die. I mean, that's not so bad, right? It's a form of population control where the strongest - er...I mean the wealthiest - get to survive and continue to populate the earth.
Good luck. Because in the end, no matter how much money we have, without food and water we all die the same. We need to be asking oursleves: is my soul ready to die and leave this world for good?
Image: Frozen Pond, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK. Copyright - Michael Beaton
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