fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

America’s Drought

So I spent most of Sunday in bed, suffering from an allergy attack so bad that I had no energy at all. It rained again Sunday. It’s been raining almost every day for a while now. It’s forecast to rain here every day this week. I think this must have something to do with my […]

So I spent most of Sunday in bed, suffering from an allergy attack so bad that I had no energy at all. It rained again Sunday. It’s been raining almost every day for a while now. It’s forecast to rain here every day this week. I think this must have something to do with my allergic reaction. I was thinking, though, that given all the drought years of the recent past, it’s a real blessing to have all this rain. I was even thinking that with the exception of Colorado, the rest of the country must be doing okay with rainfall.

Boy, was I wrong. Seriously wrong. Here is the most recent drought map of the US.  I live in one of the few places in America that isn’t in drought, or at least abnormally dry. The NYT reports that ranchers are devastated.  And a big new study finds that global warming has made extreme drought events in the US far more likely.

Are you living in a drought area? What are you seeing on the ground in your community?

I should say that London mayor Boris Johnson cites a weather forecaster of his acquaintance who says that the UK is actually about to enter a long cold spell. For what that’s worth (it may not be worth much). Also, damn, that BoJo can write. From his column:

I put down the phone and gazed at the teeming skies. I considered my options. Maybe it was time for prayer. Perhaps we could stage a pagan ritual at Stonehenge, involving either the sacrifice of maidens (if there are any these days), or a goat, or a rabbit, or maybe just a worm — whatever the RSPCA would allow.

Maybe it was time to call upon the sun god Ra, or Phoebus Apollo, or Sol Victrix, or whatever name he now goes by, and lift our hands in chanting entreaty. Come on, O thou fiery spirit that animates the world. Come on out from wherever you are hiding. Shine the light of your countenance upon us, you miserable blighter. Extend thy beams, so reverend and strong, and dry the water from our upturned cheeks. Flatter the mountain tops with your sovereign eye, vaporise the thunderheads, and give us all a break.

Give us poor Britons some kind of a summer – before the entire country dissolves like a sugar cube and sinks into the sea.

By the way, it is hotter this week in Philadelphia than it is here in south Louisiana. That has been happening a lot this summer.

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now