With the winter weather slacking my outdoor activities, I get a chance to catch up on some of my newspaper reading and watch a few news reports on TV – much of which is over-sensationalized, with truth stretched to the max by their respective reporters. So be it. Each to his own.
But what annoys me to no end is the point of view of the bulk of humanity using natural disaster as a convenient scapegoat. It allows a person or nation to blame Mother Nature (God) for man’s lack of foresight and downright stupidity. That just doesn’t cut it within the realm of thought of the growing many.
Having large groups, lacking foresight, with a don’t-give-a-damn attitude, clear-cutting large tracts of forest that buffer rainfall, paving over grassland that allows rain to soak into the soil, building subdivisions on filled-in wetlands, floodplains, gullies and natural drainage channels, which control water runoff, is a practice condoned only by idiots.
When the floods come and the water rises, they look skyward, curse Mother Nature (God) and shout, why? Why did we get hit by a natural disaster? Nonsense. A natural disaster occurs when lightning strikes and a building burns, when a tornado strikes and buildings tumble, when a volcano blows, such as Mt. St. Helens in the 1980s and, more recently, in Iceland. An under-the-ocean earthquake that causes a 50-foot tsunami that wipes out a beach town is a natural disaster.
If man as a species wishes to remain on this earth, he can no longer dwell in the dark age of ignorance. Education must be pushed in the environmental direction, encompassing history. The entire Nile Valley desert, once the breadbasket of Egypt, and the western dust bowls of the 1930s right here in Canada, are a consequence of improper farming. The poverty in Haiti, once a noted tree clad tropical paradise, is the result of clear-cutting of canopy rainforest and, more recently, landslides in Costa Rica. Need I go on?
Maybe instead of blaming floods, fires and crop failures on Mother Nature, human beings should take responsibility for the impact of their own actions, both individually and collectively.
Back on the farm front, up here in cattle country, I have been having a ball. I am now getting to know quite a few widespread neighbours by name, and I have been able to socialize with many as I frequently visit the famed Farmer’s Market at Keady. That, coupled with my way-back mixed-farming upbringing, allows me the liberty of chatting conversely with many. They talk; I listen.
The mix of farm animals that we have housed in the barn are all doing well, including our aforementioned rescued rabbits. Meanwhile, my collection of multi-coloured cackling old biddies, housed within my canary palace, are singing contentedly and shelling out eggs numbering more than half a dozen daily. So I am eating well, feeling great and each day patiently waiting, as they, to wander free-range with the coming of spring.
Take care, ‘cause we care.
barrie@barriehopkins.ca
519-986-4105