Friday, January 14, 2011

Weeping a Flood of Tears

You've no doubt read about the floods.  

In Queensland 15 people are currently confirmed dead with 50 missing and  presumed dead; suddenly and without warning, swept away in their cars and houses. Brazil's death toll is 500 and climbing rapidly. Numbers of dead in South Africa, Philippines and Sri Lanka are taking longer to estimate but there is little doubt that there will be scores of tragic losses.

Thousands and thousands of animals have perished; wild, livestock and pets. Thousands and thousands of people in all these countries have lost homes, belongings and livelihoods. More deaths will result from the aftermath as water-borne illness, food and clean water shortages, looting, economic devastation and incredible psychological trauma all take their toll.

With this indescribably horrific tragedy occurring simultaneously over such a huge and varied swathe of the globe and touching people of so many different cultures, religions and economic circumstances can we please now stop the F***ING around and get serious about banding together as a WORLD to do something about Climate Change?

Disasters that were once coined, "once in a hundred years" have now the potential to occur any old day of the week. 2010 was the hottest and wettest year on record. Flooding rain in Sri Lanka means no rain in Western Australia and the conditions ripening for out-of-control bush-fires here. 

Is this what we have to get used to? Is this what we want for our children's children to have to contend with every day of their lives, an alien apocalyptic version of Earth?

It will be hard for some to change the way of life they are accustomed to but is the idea of your loved ones burning alive in bush-fires or drowning in flash floods not enough to make you get off your arse and do something?

4 comments:

  1. Is there a chance, that we will understand, that this is happening to someone, just like you and me. Not a stranger with no face? We really must do something now. Not wait any longer!!

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  2. Absolutely! It's like a comet heading straight for us. Now is not the time to pussy foot around. You know what? I really hope people are affected by this as humans. I have been incredibly moved by the horrible footage of the Brazilian woman trying to save herself and her little dog. She's screaming atop her completely demolished house and clinging on to that dog for dear life. Who knows who else was in that house and how MUCH she had already lost. She gets winched out of the torrent but loses grip of her little dog as she's being pulled up to safety, she is wailing inconsolably after the little dog disappears. She's lost EVERYTHING except her life...how does she go on? I feel such compassion and distress for her suffering, surely it must touch enough people around the world to cause some movement...if you can't feel that pain like your own then you can't be human.

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  3. Sadly not all people are affected by these images...Truely I was astounded when Tim came home and told me that a lot of the people he works with are (in their words not Tim's I must add) "bored with all this flood stuff" that is interupting their TV viewing.
    It's hard to be optomistic about change.

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  4. Ugh. I feel so sad for the folks that are suffering. I cannot even imagine. Around here in Charlotte, North Carolina, the entire area shut down for a week due to a little ICE. I haven't seen the footage of the Brazilian woman; it sounds so heartbreaking.

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