Catastrophic Weather
Talk about contrasts and relativity. Here in North America we languish with discomfort under temperatures soaring to 30 degrees centigrade and full sun. Yet in Europe, in India and in China temperatures approaching the mid-40s are threatening peoples' lives and the crops they depend upon for their table. We experience a few days of heavy rain when to look out a window approximates gazing into a fishtank, and feel we're being washed away. Alternately we chafe under a situation of little-to-no precipitation and bemoan the drought situation.
These are all extremes to us. We prefer moderation in all things, including our environment, the temperatures reached, the amount of rain we receive to present us with the gentle balance of nature. The rare occurrences of hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, affect us deeply, upsetting our sense of complacency and cause us to worry about the unsettling future of climate change and how our world will be affected.
"Our world" is the very near geography we inhabit, not the greater world around us. In that greater world extreme heat of a punishing variety with no surcease has been visited upon parts of Europe, over to the near and far east with horribly disruptive results. Australia too is suffering under the onslaught of a determined drought giving no clue as to when it intends to dissolve into normal weather patterns.
Monsoon flooding in India is creating huge drowning swamps, drowning people and livestock, ruining crops, causing millions of people to search for high ground, assembling in hastily put-together relief camps. Storms, landslides, monsoon flooding in South Asia has killed hundreds of people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal. Bodies cannot be buried or cremated; grounds are under water.
Submerged highways means that food and medicines must be dropped to desperate and marooned people by air. In mountainous regions roads have been blocked by landslides, causing food scarcity in tribal areas. More than thirteen million people have been affected and countless livestock have perished. People are desperate to see a cessation of their plight.
In China over 200 million people have been affected by that country's worst flooding in decades. Heavy, ongoing rains accentuated by a heat wave has contributed to flooding in 24 of the country's 31 provinces. Red Cross figures of over 500 killed, and five million driven from their homes spells out the size of the disaster.
In Shanghai the hottest summer on record is being predicted, where temperatures much over 50 degrees centigrade have already been experienced. It's hardly to be conceived that such weather extremes are wreaking such unbelievable damage, imperilling so many people.
These are all extremes to us. We prefer moderation in all things, including our environment, the temperatures reached, the amount of rain we receive to present us with the gentle balance of nature. The rare occurrences of hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, affect us deeply, upsetting our sense of complacency and cause us to worry about the unsettling future of climate change and how our world will be affected.
"Our world" is the very near geography we inhabit, not the greater world around us. In that greater world extreme heat of a punishing variety with no surcease has been visited upon parts of Europe, over to the near and far east with horribly disruptive results. Australia too is suffering under the onslaught of a determined drought giving no clue as to when it intends to dissolve into normal weather patterns.
Monsoon flooding in India is creating huge drowning swamps, drowning people and livestock, ruining crops, causing millions of people to search for high ground, assembling in hastily put-together relief camps. Storms, landslides, monsoon flooding in South Asia has killed hundreds of people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal. Bodies cannot be buried or cremated; grounds are under water.
Submerged highways means that food and medicines must be dropped to desperate and marooned people by air. In mountainous regions roads have been blocked by landslides, causing food scarcity in tribal areas. More than thirteen million people have been affected and countless livestock have perished. People are desperate to see a cessation of their plight.
In China over 200 million people have been affected by that country's worst flooding in decades. Heavy, ongoing rains accentuated by a heat wave has contributed to flooding in 24 of the country's 31 provinces. Red Cross figures of over 500 killed, and five million driven from their homes spells out the size of the disaster.
In Shanghai the hottest summer on record is being predicted, where temperatures much over 50 degrees centigrade have already been experienced. It's hardly to be conceived that such weather extremes are wreaking such unbelievable damage, imperilling so many people.
Labels: Environment, Miscellaneous, Realities
posted by Pieface @ 6:46 PM
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