man & nature # 15 ~ liquid sky
Monday, June 23, 2008 at 11:53AM 
Driving rain drive • click to embiggenI'm not one to say, Chicken Little-like, that the sky is falling - even though, environmentally speaking, I do firmly believe that quite a number of chickens are coming home to roost. Chickens that, even though we gave birth to and fostered them, are very much unwelcome and very annoying guests. I also firmly believe that the only question that remains to be answered is whether they eat us or we eat them.
That said, I must say that for the second year running, the month of June is turning out to be wet, wet, wet. Not mid-western US of A destructive wet, but a lot of rain nevertheless. And just to make it interesting, the rain storms are uncommonly violent and severe - very sort lived and nasty, albeit 3 or 4 storms a day. High winds, hail, and sheets of water that turn our front sidewalk and driveway into a fast running 4-5 inch deep stream are the general order of the day.
Global warming / climate change predictions have opined that such is to be expected, much more the rule than the exception it used to be. And, so, in fact, it seems to be.
But, actually, here's the point of today's entry (just to let you know where I stand on the issue) -
I am sick and tired of hearing / reading the "it's just the earth's natural cycle of warming and cooling" rationale for what is going on. Simply put, sure the planet has had a number warming / cooling cycles which were, indeed, natural but anyone who thinks that spewing a zillion tons a day of manmade climate-change pollutants into the earth's atmosphere is an act of "nature" needs a huge reality check. And maybe even a sharp slap upside the head with a sledge hammer as well.
That bullshit rational for continuing to live an ego-centric and eco-destroying "lifestyle" is ... well ... bullshit. It ranks right up there with naming trees as a significant source of air pollution. Yep, sure. And ketchup is also a vegetable. Kiss my mercury-tainted ass, morons.
Lest anyone think that any of the preceding is venting about a pet peeve, let me quote the now departed George Carlin;
“I don’t have pet peeves, I have major, psychotic hatreds.”
Reader Comments (6)
just checking with "the wife" that his life insurance policy is up to date? I don't see hands anywhere near the mandated 10 and 2 o' clock positions?! "guns don't kill people, photographers driving with their knees in a blinding hailstorm kill people."
I have had an immense envy for the ones living on mars (Martians ?). They have sunsets and red rocks to go. Now i discover that this will happen only in a 100 o more years from now on earth, what a shame, did you consider that those polluters you speak of are genuinely interested in the future of photography in trying to give us more views: intimate, lovely and inspiring ?
Whether we eat the chickens or they eat us is absolutely irrelevant. That's the good news! You can relax. In 10000 years no one will care — if there's anyone there who can care. Don't drive, don't fly, use no electricity, don't eat, breathe, move and perhaps we can beat this thing.
Amen, and down here in my little corner of the NY, we have our PCB GE dredging project underway. New railroad line, construction of a dewatering facility, barges to haul it out of the river and up the canal to that facility where it will be sent to another area to be buried.
IMO the PCB's should have been left alone and let nature take its course. Now it will be stirred up to drift down the Hudson a few more miles.
Showing a blatant disregard for the sentiments expressed in the post following this one (on critiquing photos), I'd call this particular set, "Timing Is Everything". That or, "Editing Is Everything", 'cause those windshield wipers must have been going a mile a minute, yet they never block the view.
As for the particular psychotic hatred expressed, feel free to up the volume.
"I am sick and tired of hearing / reading the "it's just the earth's natural cycle of warming and cooling" rationale for what is going on."
And I'm sick and tired of hearing observations on short term weather as indication of long term climate change.