Home > Dispatches > Daily Dispatches 2014 >Daily Dispatch #252

September 21, 2014: Climate Change, So What?

This morning, as I was picking up horse manure, I stopped shoveling and looked upward. I could see, up behind the hoop house, the early morning sun on the trees. The leaves on the trees were gold and green in color. The colors were backlit by the gray-blue sky. I tried as best I could to put this incredible sight into my mind’s eye.

We’ve had a variable fall weather-wise, one that has caused people to exclaim “hmm, something isn’t right here.” Daily, weekly, monthly, intermittent rain and sunshine. The heaviest rains have been falling at night, and this year, in the month of September. At night, we now



hear the steady drumming of rain on the roof. It feels and looks like we’re going tropical. Got slugs, got mushrooms, got slimy surfaces, got moldy hay to deal with.

Yesterday I pulled a portion of the bad hay out of the barn – it was dusty, had black, white, and green mold on and in it. I piled it up outside the shed and put a tarp on it. Today or tomorrow we’ll put in the trailer and take it back to our supplier. I am concerned about our getting good, quality replacement hay because the weather has not been conducive to cutting and drying it. We did get a load of good, dry hay on July 4, but because we had the now moldy hay on hand, didn’t fill our hayshed.

Okay. So what I’m talking about here is an immediate concern. Can’t feed three horses and three goats bad stuff. And my friends, who are also responsible animal owners, feel similarly. I suspect that if we have to, that we’ll pay the high price for out of state hay and then grumble about it.

We are (I know) in this respect, being slightly inconvenienced by the outward effects of climate change. However, there are people who are being majorly inconvenienced by the same. For instance, there are people who, because of fire damage, have had to relocate.

What we’re now experiencing is are the early effects of climate change. Habitat loss is another. So is extinction. So is ocean acidification. So hang on folks, things are only going to get worse. As Bob Dylan once said “you don’t need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind blows.”
We are on the verge of losing all we know to be beautiful and life-affirming. Those people who now inhabit our planet will have memories as to what it was like. However, future generations will not. They’ll be born into a world that was majorly trashed out by their predecessors. They won’t know how beautiful things were because they won’t have seen what things were like previously.

The very strange thing about us humans is that while we can envision the future, we can’t see the consequences of our actions. This may be why instead of trying to forestall or eliminate climate change, we’re doing the opposite. Corporations are scrabbling for the big stuff, the natural resources, right and left, coal, oil, gas and wood, at an unprecedented rate. And individuals, who feel powerless, are acting in kind. For example, as I write this, hunters are driving up and down our residential road in large gas guzzling vehicles. Soon, they’ll get out, and in their ATV’s, go off in search of moosey moosey.

The feelings about the matter of climate change are related to big business. Big corporate entities don’t care, which has resulted in a sense of hopelessness amongst those of us who otherwise would care. A small instance, one might thing why turn off a light in a household when they have the knowledge that hundreds upon thousands of lights are ablaze in public buildings, those owned by Exxon, Mobil, and Conoco Phillips included?

I do my part, somewhat. I compost, garden, limit gas consumption, recycle. However, I have given up in my attempts to bring about change in the political venue. Mostly ineffectual power hungry men are running the show, and a handful of women are following in their footsteps.

My commentary sounds bleak. Well, the situation IS bleak. And I’m not going to sugar coat this dispatch by returning to the beginning (as is often the case) and saying something catchy, like the light on the trees enabled me to see the light.
Our planet is dying, and we as a species are going out with it. This is in part the course of natural events. Everything organic is born, lives, and dies. I just wish that we could stall the inevitability by keeping our numbers in check, for this is the root of the problem.

Next: 253. 9/22/14: Beyond the Hay Days