We are in the iron grasp of Winter with frigid temperatures, ice, and snow! This time has meant terrible hardships for so many especially folks in the mid-West. In our area, the cold has made life difficult especially for those in poor neighborhoods who have to walk many places. Sidewalks aren't cleared properly, or at all! They have to push carts and baby carriages through the mess. Homeless folks are forced into shelters, which are a blessing and curse at the same time. Bad weather falls on the poorest with a greater burden.
I feel the effects of my privilege: a warm house, warm clothes, substantial food, a car to take me where I need to go. I am grateful for all these things. But I struggle with the knowledge that so many suffer in adverse weather.
Weather is not climate change, I realize that. But these extreme weather events have been connected to global warming. The polar vortex is the cause of the cold, but how is that related to climate change?
Check out the article at https://earthsky.org/earth/how-polar-vortex-connected-to-global-warming
"Undoubtedly this new polar vortex attack will unleash fresh claims that global warming is a hoax. But this ridiculous notion can be quickly dispelled with a look at predicted temperature departures around the globe for early this week. The lobe of cold air over North America is far outweighed by areas elsewhere in the United States and worldwide that are warmer than normal." 

 Mother Nature is always communicating with us but are we listening? Does our human hubris stop us from getting the messages? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Snow...  I love the snow! This love was rekindled on Tuesday evening when I took a walk in the park. It was dusk, the snow was falling gently and gathering on the pine trees. The lake had a thin coat of ice and snowflakes made it white. Snow is so amazing. It is hard to imagine that each flake is unique!  I looked up snowflake on wiki and found: A  snowflake  is a single  ice crystal  that has achieved a sufficient size and may have amalgamated with others, then falls through the  Earth's atmosphere  as  snow .  Each flake nucleates around a dust particle in  supersaturated  air masses by attracting  supercooled  cloud water droplets, which  freeze  and accrete in crystal form. Complex shapes  emerge  as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in detail from one another... It always fascinates me to look up the science behind the reality of what I see. Drama lies in the details - the drama of ho
Read more
I have a connection with hawks and birds of prey. It really goes back to 2006 after my brother Tom died. Tom spent his life in a wheelchair because of a birth defect. He never let that stop him. I remember well his drive to get a job, to go to college, to engage in sports, to have a social life. A few weeks after Tom died I went hiking and climbed Allender Mt. I was bereft and feeling so down. As I sat on the top of the mountain a falcon whizzed by me and hovered out about 30 feet in front of me. I was startled to say the least! Then I laughed. I felt that Tom was visiting me telling me that he was free and enjoying his new freedom! Ever since then, I have had some very interesting experiences with eagles, hawks, and falcons. Each time I feel my brother's presence, his humor, and his care. A couple of weeks ago I was taking a walk and talking to a friend. I looked up to see a red-tail hawk perched on the top of a pine tree. He was large and the top could barely support him. All at
Read more
Image
 A few weeks ago I took a hike at the Vischer Ferry Preserve. It was a grey day as much of January has been. I wondered if I could really see any birds since the light would not be very good, but I forged ahead. There is always something to experience in nature! I felt enveloped in a monochromatic gray. The sky was a veil of silvery clouds that reached down through the trees to the ground. Trees were etched in hues of washed-out black with brown shadows. The limbs and branches of each species sketching delicate traces or thick, dark lines across the clouds. The canal and march were frozen and the ice continued the pearly tones - white-streaked only in small places. I felt that I was lost in a Japanese watercolor! As I walked I looked more deeply and carefully. Grey was not the only color here! Muskrats had kept the water at the edge of the marsh open and brown reeds and loosestrife stood out there in the black water. The reeds towered tall and tan and rustled a song in the wind. Little
Read more