Blessed Rain

 

No rainbows today, but blessed, blessed rain.  Soft, gentle rain.  Rain that will soak in, drench the ground - if we get enough of it.  Which is moot.

The rivers are still far too low in terms of water levels, and despite the Bright Sparks who keep insisting this is all 'normal', let me be the one to say - it is not.

If someone is basing 'normal' on the past five years, which have steadily increased in being so very *not* normal, then, yes, this year would fit right into the 5 year long sink into drought.

But I'm not 20 something.  My memory goes far beyond the past 5 years, the past 20 years, the past 40 years, when we first began noting significant and worrisome changes to the climate.

It is exasperating to have these bold young (mostly) men (I assume they are young, they are certainly men and bold with their opinions) constantly try to whiff away the very real danger that is current and present with the ground parched, river levels far below 'normal', and nearly 100 zombie fires that never did get put out over the winter because there was insufficient snow to extinguish them.  It isn't even the end of April and there have already been evacuation alerts issued to due wildfires.  This is not normal!

But how can anyone get through the confident declarations of people who refuse to accept the reality of our changing climate?  They will go blindly into the future and then get pissed at everyone else but themselves once there is no more water in the lakes and rivers, their electric bill skyrockets because the largely hydro produced electricity we rely on quite literally dries up.

They will continue to wash their big ass lifted gas guzzling trucks with copious amounts of water, then complain when they can't go to the lake because the lakes have dried up.

And if (a big IF) the rain does come and disaster is averted, they will simply take that as proof that people like me were alarmists.  And they will continue to march into a future that is going to look very different from what 'normal' used to be.

I'm old.  I won't be around to see their comeuppance if things don't change and we manage to stop the march towards self-destruction.

The big difference between people like me and people like them, is that *I* care they they will be in danger, and they don't give a damn about people like me.

And I have no idea how to get through to them that they should care about themselves and their families if they can't be bothered to care about people like me.

As a weaver, I also know that when the apocalypse comes, spinners and weavers will suddenly be necessary and valuable members of the community.  Because supply chains will break down.  The clothing industry, which currently relies on petroleum based products (polyesters, etc) will not be producing clothing and society will need to have people who have the skills to raise fibre crops and turn them into essentials like clothing and blankets.

I chatted with a gardener a few months ago and we agreed that when the time comes, I can make cloth for her and she can grow food for me.

Old skills will be new again.  Human beings will once again need to know where their food comes from and how to coax it from the earth.  

I was promised hand baskets on the road to hell.  Maybe I need to learn basketry, too?