Monday, February 1, 2016

But...But...The Flowers Are So Beautiful!

Today got up to eighty here and it felt so much like spring that I felt all the feelings that come rushing in when spring arrives, knowing all the while that it is not actually spring but before I could remember this, my skin and eyes would tell me that it is spring, believe it or not. 

As global climate changes become more profound, what is going to happen to our innate and internal clocks, set to the days before these changes became so widespread? Is anyone asking this question besides me? Is this going to have implications that we who are sensitive to such things (and I think that most of us are, whether we know it or not) will have difficulties with? Will this trigger anxiety or depression in some of us? The vast and far-reaching effects of these changes are almost beyond our ken unless we are climate scientists, I think. The Zika virus scare, the so-called tropical diseases which will begin to surely and definitely affect us, the way we shall have to change our planting and harvesting schedules, the foods that we cannot grow that we formerly could, the things that we can now grow, that we formerly could not, the location of fishes and whales in the ocean, the use of energy and fossil fuels, the confusion and disruption of the migration of birds and insects and other animals- all of these things are not insignificant and in fact, add up to what we all know is possible devastation for all life on the planet.
I say "possible."
I hope that the word which would more accurately be used is not "certain".

I already know that our properties on both Dog Island and the Apalachicola Bay are not going to be here for my grandchildren's children. I have no doubt about that.

I do not dwell on these things. I am not obsessed with worrying about them and yet, there is no way to deny they are happening. A mosquito is hovering around me as I write this. Is it infected with Zika or malaria or Chikunganya or Dengue? Probably not but next year, it's offspring may be. How can the CDC keep up with these things? The insect repellent market?
Our minds?
Last fall the mosquitoes were so bad that I could not, would not, work in my garden. I have lived in Florida all of my life and I had never seen mosquitoes like that.
Even the lack of hurricanes in the last few years is slightly disturbing. As much as I hate them, hurricanes are a part of our lives, or least, always have been. They fill the aquifers, they nourish the swamps which a necessary part of the ecosystem here.

And right now, our legislature in Florida is passing one bill after another, making fracking a possibility here.

I am so appalled that I can't even tell you. I honestly had more faith in human intelligence than I should have.

I have no answers. Not one. I have only despair.
We have fouled our nest which is something that even my chickens do not do. They only poop in the nests in which they do not lay eggs.

I'm confused, y'all.
And scared to death.

Love...Ms. Moon

P.S. I just pulled a tick off my leg. A tick. The first day of February. Throw that little fact into the mix.






11 comments:

  1. I've no answer. The greed and supidity are both insatiable.

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  2. Very interesting post. In Arizona, the pharmacists tell you to put the drugs into a coffee can, cover with coffee and throw it away. That sounds kind of odd to me. Good luck with all of this, closure can be so hard to reach.

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  3. Mary, you are so right, about everything. Last fall, after our mini flood, the mosquitoes were so bad here that there was no way to be outside without running. I sat in front of a huge fan covered in chemicals and still they swarmed me, it was misery and unprecedented in my lifetime too. Mosquito born illness is a major fear for me, even here in the midwest. The weather is crazy and our lives are out of whack, aren't they?

    I worry about it all. The water in Flint, the receding ice cap, the super bugs, our stupidity about our Earth. I want my daughter to study water resource management or climatology. We need all the help we can get!
    xo

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  4. I love spring, but not if it brings tropical disease, eroding coastlines and who knows what else. I will be enjoying the next two days of "spring". Gail

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  5. My great, great grandchildren won't let me sleep

    It's 3:23 in the morning, and I'm awake

    because my great, great, grandchildren won't let me sleep.

    My great, great, grandchildren ask me in dreams

    what did you do, while the planet was plundered?

    what did you do, when the earth was unraveling?

    surely you did something when the seasons started failing

    as the mammals, reptiles, and birds were all dying?

    did you fill the streets with protest when democracy was stolen?

    what did you do

    once

    you

    knew?

    -Drew Dellinger - 2003

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  6. I'm sorry about your despair. It's hard not to go there. I have my doubts about the Zika scare. There's just something about the hysteria surrounding it that brings out my conspiracy theory side. Brazil uses more pesticides and crap on their crops and people than most other industrialized countries. With impunity. I have been poking around with the microcephaly statistics, and it's honestly not that much greater than in other years. What if it is chemicals? What if it's chemical companies? Push those vaccines, too.

    But what do I know? Not shit.

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  8. As you know, I think there are just too many of us. That's the answer to almost every problem in my book. We cannot live the way we have lived for the past few hundred years because our footprints fall too heavily on the natural environment. I'm not sure we can lighten that footfall enough to accommodate all of us. You know?

    Fracking, in Florida?! What is there to Frack? Does Florida have any natural gas?

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  9. I know how you feel. We share the same fear. This is no comfort.

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  10. I've read that Zika's been around for decades, it's just all of a sudden become a risk.

    I'm having trouble not wondering what's going on there too. Also, recently released GM mosquitoes don't inspire confidence, eh?

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.