Happy Monday News Viewers and welcome to Free Range, our Monday Free Chat with an environmental bent; today I’m remembering the statement someone made that our planet should be called Ocean rather than Earth– 75% of the planet consists of water after all. . . . .And since we’re in the middle of a drought in the West, islands of plastic in the oceans, melting Arctic glaciers, perma-frost and the two poles, lakes full of non-native creatures, and airless dead water bodies. . . . .we think it’s a good time to get soaked……
Today we celebrate water in the midst of a water emergency; because as FDR said during the Dust Bowl (yes, paraphrase) we’re in a MOMENT, we’re not in a FOREVER, at least not if we use our human wherewithal to to “fit” with nature rather than “fight” it. . . .
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”
― Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
“‘Dust to eat,’ and dust to breathe and dust to drink. Dust in the beds and in the flour bin, on dishes and walls and windows, in hair and eyes and ears and teeth and throats, to say nothing of the heaped up accumulation on floors and window sills after one of the bad days.” — Caroline Henderson, Letters from the Dust Bowl
Bodies of water, forms of water. . . .
“It cannot be described, this awesome chain of events that depopulated the whole Earth; the range is too tremendous for any to picture of encompass. Of the people of Earth’s unfortunate ages, billions of years before, only a few prophets and madman could have conceived that which was to come – could have grasped visions of the still, dead lands, and long-empty sea-beds. The rest would have doubted… doubted alike the shadow of change upon the planet and the shadow of doom upon the race. For man has always thought himself the immortal master of natural things…”
― H.P. Lovecraft
So News Viewers, whatcha got? This is a PYOT (pick your own topic) and we love environmental news and views, but our planet includes humans along with everything else, so no doubt our people stories will show up too. Meanwhile, I’m contrasting FDR Dust Bowl thoughts with my absolute love of water, and I’m thinking, as usual, we’ve been here before. How do we FIT rather than FIGHT with nature now?