Grey day

Very windy day, today. The Easterly was howling down the harbour when I woke and it's been around pretty much all day. The weather has been odd this November: more rain and more wind than anyone can remember. Snow in the high country. Fog. Hail. And sometimes warm, clear spring days. The weather is decided by the movement of vast currents, moving in the oceans and the atmosphere, like the currents in a heating pot of soup. Turn up the gas a bit and the soup moves faster. Turn up the temperature on the planet, and the air and the oceans move faster, and everything is amped up a bit: more clouds and fogs, more rain, more heat, more hail, more wind, more floods, more droughts, more hurricanes and typhoons and tornadoes. In the vast scale of things the 20 years we have been in Dunedin is not a long time, but we have seen the changes in the weather. I wonder what it will be like in another 20? I wonder why all of us seem pretty lethargic about doing something about it, even the majority of us who are aware of what's happening?

Photo: Nikon D7100; Nikkor 18-200 @18mm; 1/100, f6.3, iso200. I like the strong lines leading into the centre of the frame and the kind of Yin?yang balance between the solid land and the pale, shifting, open space to the left.

Comments

Kate said…

Good question. Earthquakes too, and volcanic activity is increasing due to weight shifts from pack ice melt. Insect diversity is down 30 - 50 % and numbers up to 85% down. Not to mention higher order animals.
It's hard to get going! Plastic and cars are SO CONVENIENT!
I am eating 1/4 the meat I was 20 years ago, growing 70% of my own vegetables, and biking. Nearly achieved zero waste in the last eight months, heated the house 100% from my own grown wood for the last 15 years, and making all my own clothes or buying from op shops. But I must do more too. I have grandchildren for whom I feel very motivated I must be a good example.

1 December 2018 at 15:35

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