A NEW YEAR OF EARTH CHANGES

Saint Louis, Missouri, flooded enough to stop transportation,  The North Of England - flooded.  (Prince Charles with his long time concern for the environment is truly the perfect person to be the next King!) Tornados touching down in unprecedented numbers.  Earth changes, no doubt.  Global Warming Summit in Paris.   Is this really something we can stop now by altering our life styles so that we no longer pollute?  (I think it would take more than recycling, and shutting down factories particularly in China, but also less use of air travel...)  Al Gore was right.  Al Gore was right.

In the wee hours I woke up and turned on the radio, a station which featured psychic predictions for the future.  In the morning I wake up again, check my weather ap and see that the experts are predicting a swath of storms "NON EL NINO RELATED" that will hit my area this week.  I took down the Christmas lights that I had planned to keep on until January 6th, in advance of these storms thinking the wet weather and electricity could be dangerous.

My dog is wearing sweaters and I've taken to using a space heater in one room - the bedroom, which I'm using 90% of the time now.  The gas wall heater is too expensive to use and so old it has no thermostat and though it can eat up the humidity when it's on, most of the heat goes out the windows. The electric bill will rise, as will the gas bill, but not enough to consider the expense of double pane windows, water heater wraps, and all the rest. 

Not too long ago, during one of the hottest summers I've ever experienced, so sick of the heat, I vowed that I would not complain of the cold or the wet.  I'm actually lucky because I'm not dealing at all with freezing rain, sleet, ice or snow and even when it goes to freezing at night I can cover up my plants outside.

I'm limited in what I can do but I do it.  I have cut back my water use especially.  I recycle not only bottles and cans but give away clothes and other things that someone else can get use out of.  I generate so little garbage that my can doesn't have to go out to the street more than once a month.  I think "if everyone would do just a little more towards this effort."  But, despite their being constant warnings - and rules - and laws - about water usage in my area, I still have a neighbor who waters excessively. Everyone on the street is angry at him but so far he has not been busted by the authorities and has not gotten any fines.

Now, anticipating the rain, I'm more worried than ever that it will be excessive and that there will be flooding in my area, which was not designed to cope with too much rain at any one time.  There is a construction site down the street that is dug out and I hope any flooding will go down into the pit instead of down the street and into the yards!

THE DANUBE CARRIES THE HISTORY OF EUROPE - JACQUES COUSTEAU ADVENTURE CIRCA 1990-1992

Watching

1) The Curtain Rises - the old abbeys and castles, and new dams and industry, and the timeless ECOSYSTEM of the river THAT CARRIES THE HISTORY OF EUROPE.

2) Charlemagne's Dream to link the Rhine and the Danube by a canal which now exists and creates also a passage from the North to the Black Sea.

3) The Rivers Cries Out...  The royal stag and the Carpathian bear, the Danube and it's tributaries.

4) Rivalries - nuclear and industrial pollution, fished out waters, rusted out vessels and the horrors of war.

I admit to being distracted badly while trying to watch this film, and also having a sense that the information was valuable but needed an update. But what surprised me was that it turned into a travelogue about the land - and the history - and wasn't all about what was under the water. 

As I watched I also wondered about the flooding that has occurred in recent years in Europe.  I thought about fresh water - drinking and farming water - shortages.  Earth changes and drought.