Well, adaptationists? How do you propose to deal with this?
I suppose all the extra deserts will provide plenty of room for extra refugee holding stations . . . and cemeteries . . .
I should stop reading the news.
Sand dunes are pretty, I suppose.
I like sandhills better, though. Drought turns sandhills into sand dunes. Sigh.
That reminds me, I have some pictures from our September mini-vacation to the Spruce Woods area in Manitoba. I should post those soon, just to lift my spirits. Yes.
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on the edge
1 month ago
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Not that I necessarily dispute their assertions, but the Earth is a closed system - if the water isn't falling in some areas, it has to be falling somewhere else. It can't just disappear.
Well, it can be in the oceans...
The atmosphere holds only a tiny portion of the world's water at a time. It's certainly not a continuous supply of rain. And there have been times in the past when there were much more extensive deserts in North America. I don't know if there were larger deserts elsewhere at the same time.
Expanding deserts is not just a forecast risk, it's a reality that's been going on for decades. There were symposia about desertification when I was in university in the early 90s.
Do you think anyone will believe them?
I think more and more people are believing what they are seeing, and many will take this report seriously. But how seriously? I myself have a great store of evidence stashed away in my brain, and very little lifestyle change to show for it. I have to balance lifestyle change with family dynamics; would it be irresponsible to tear my family apart for the future wellbeing of its members and descendants? And then there is just plain old habit and comfort- and pleasure-seeking. I'm doing okay at the easy stuff like walking or biking on errands here in town. I'm not doing so well at making the tougher choices, like forgoing trips to the city or turning down activities that require more driving, or scheduling energy-efficiency renovations and getting on with them, or growing and preserving more food.
Yes, those things are the hardest things in our house too. Especially the driving, it's a constant struggle against the inclination to wander further afield.
Well, I'm lucky that my natural inclination is to stay close to home. I have very little interest in travel for travel's sake, although I do a little of it because it seems to promote harmony here. And if I'm going somewhere anyway, I'll take a back road to see something new. But classes, conferences, lessons - it seems that the moment I finish or quit one, I'm signing up for another. And a lot of them happen at the next town over, for both me and the kids. Fortunately (and partly deliberately) we've got them all on the same day this season. But between the staggered start and end times, and the need to be at parents' meetings some weeks, and the duty to try to help other parents carpool, we sometimes end up going twice in one day, or taking two vehicles - ARRGH!
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