Hail Storm, January 2007 . . my car! Hail stones the size of golf balls fell on a 35 degree day
Climate change or has it happened before?
Climate change or has it happened before?
I've participated in this over the past couple of years. Once a year. Blog Action Day requests interested bloggers to nominate a topic for discussion across the Blogosphere. It's no surprise that this year, the winning theme is Climate Change. Frankly, I was a C02 slammer, a carbon trading promoter but as time goes by and the fact is sieved from the fiction, I'm not so sure. Research will have to be done. There is no doubt that the globe is warming, the argument is really about the cause. No, the argument is really "What are we going to do about it?"
Dust storm, my back yard. Sydney, September 2009 as a result of harsh winds and 11 years drought and an unusual cool front coming from the South Australian desert- freak event or has it happened before.
It's a subject particularly close to the hearts of many Australians and in fact helped our current Government to be elected. With many Pacific Islands slowly becoming submerged, our Prime Minister taking carbon trading initiatives to the United Nations and fierce debate on whether it's a furfy or a cause, it's a tough topic. You don't have to take an environmental stance or even post a factual post. You can write a story, an anecdote, anything you like which brings Climate Change into the debate.
I will probably argue that global warming - no longer a fashionable term which has been sanitised to "Climate Change", is a fact of life. It's happening, in fact it's happened before, and we need to do something to protect against it as best we can. But don't pre-empt me now. Take a look and if climate change is a topic close to your heart. Join in the debate and bring this important issue to the forefront. So on Blog Action Day, Thursday 15th October (a day before my birthday, so take note!) Why not discuss what climate change means to you, your thoughts, your opinions whether it's affected you or whether frankly you don't give a shit - and share it with the bloggers in your neighbourhood. Over 8 million have already registered. Only through informed debate and broadened awareness can we hope to resolve the issue or at the very worst, learn to live with it. So don't buy me a present . . . give me a gift and post on Blog Action Day (Theme Thursdayers . . you can do it on Wednesday or Friday!)
35 comments:
The red dust reminded me of a storm on Arrakis. Half thought I would see the worm riders any moment on the television.
Nice one Baino. Theme Thursdayers, why don't we make it the topic for that Thursday?
Cal welcome over, I've been a lurker at yours for a while and yes, at 6am we might have well been on mars! Except we could breathe of course!
No no no Alan . nice sentiment but TT is set on stone and not for promoting individual agenda. That's what makes it so special. Different points of view on the same subject with no particular emphasis on an agenda or cause . .
I'm not interested in pressing my ideas on that particular fora. However, if you have an opinion, please register officiallly and post on Wed or Fri. The message is the importance here, not the date.
I'm with Alan on that and will pass it along.
Baino, an auntie of mine lost her brand new( then )Chevy to a hail storm in Arkansas, a few years back...
We had a big dust storm hit Melbourne in 1982. Another big one hit Sydney in 1940's. Does that mean human-induced 'climate change' was happening back then?
And hail can quite easily occur on hot days. Temperatures in the upper levels of thunderstorms (thousands of metres altitude) are below zero and so ice forms. In fact there is a theory that lightning is caused by a buildup of static electricity from ice flying around violently in the tops of thunderstorms.
Thanks for the info on Blog Action Day. I've never heard of it.
I might just join in. It's an important subject. I read today about the Kenyan woman Wangari Maathai who has dedicated her life to saving Africa's rainforests. She has been persecuted relentlessly by commercial interests out to chop them all down.
It is all the Americans' fault! They screw everything up! For example our American teacher found out we should write an 500 words long essay on how African-Americans' became equal. In Hungary it is not a topic and it is not discussed. I don't care at all what they did, do or will do. For me it was the last drop. I pull on my own Iron Curtain, they don't worth my anger.
watched the dust storms play out on the net and thought of you. think i will play along with this one, as the earth is a gift we seldom think to care for until it is too late unfortunately.
getting lots of press. Wow
I will definitely post on climate change (which is, by the way, the term scientists use because winters are getting colder and storms more violent) on October 15. When the Polar Ice caps start melting at an increasingly rapid rate it's time to pay attention.
Hello Baino,that was a great post and we are all concerned by those changes.I'm in,but what is it that we need to do on that day?
I really like Las Vegas, but I suspect it will only take one time of being there in a dust storm to put me off it forever. I can't think of much which would be more uncomfortable than being unable to breathe effectively while being sand-blasted by a hot, grit-laden wind. I'm fortunate that if it does happen, we will be able to enjoy ourselves perfectly well by staying inside the hotel, and be transported by airconditioned taxi to wherever we need to go. I do feel for you, having that happen x number of times in your own living space.
Can you filter the dust from your home, or does it get in? It surely MUST get in.
How do the horses cope?
Subby have a go. Like I said, it doesn't have to be a dissertation on global warming, just something related that draws attention to it. Yeh, hail is quite common here, particularly in stormy summers.
TMATP, it's growing each year but not a bad awareness initiative. And you'll have to wait but I'm more concerned about human induced waste and consumerism than our constant focus on C02 emissions . . I think it a big distraction.
There you go Nick a great topic for Blog Action Day!
OH Ropi! You just don't like your teacher. Although why she would for a minute think that White and black Americans are equal I don't know. Perhaps she doesn't know enough about Hungary to set an essay based on your experience.
That it is Brian and there are many ways to draw attention to it's plight.
It is? I haven't seen it publicised other than on the Blogs Sandy but subscribers seem to be growing.
It's a problem Darlene but is it human induced? I used to think so, now I'm not so sure or maybe it's just an excuse so that we can keep living unsustainable existences on earth. I have my homework set out for me. j
Hello Candie . hope you had a lovely holiday, you've been missed! Just register at www.blogactionday.org (click on one of my links) and post about climate change. It's supposed to be the 15th but that's Theme Thursday so maybe do it on the 14th.
Jay the dust storm came in throughout the night so dawn was orange and thick with fine interior red dust. I left the windows open because it wasn't expected, well not in such volumes. .I'm still dusting and the Dyson has had a super workout! It didn't seem to bother the horses other than changing a nice shade of apricot! We had the biggie on Wednesday then a smaller less spectacular one on Thursday morning but it blew away pretty quickly. A combination of a big cold front and high winds, and drought in the interior of course.
Oh my God, my brain is like a sieve, please remind me of your birthday ahead of time.
Love Renee xoxo
Some clever-clogs down here in Melbourne suggested that the Sydney dust storm was caused by a Brownlow WAG exploding, sending orange spray tan dust further north!
I am with you, but I need to be reminded! I forget things when they are a little bit away! Remind me that weekend, seriously!
I will remember.
Wait. I just watched the video. The blog action day people seems to have an set agenda, rather than promoting a day of debate and free thinking. I'm afraid I can't support that.
Baino, I passed Alan's idea along to kimy( well, asked her to have a looksee here ). I've seen cars totally crushed in a hail storm, as well!
Oh, hail! I think I go along with you if you look at Earth's weather patterns since the beginning.
Thank you for commenting on my blog while I was away. I just read all your posts and will comment here.
On Sept 11 2001 I was going to work only ½ day because we had tickets to fly to England and France on Sept 12. We did not make it since the airports were closed. But the next month I flew to New York for 3 days as I felt I should. We had a colleague aboard the second plane which flew into the World Trade Center, he was going on vacation with his wife – I did not know him personally. My mother passed away in 2002 in Paris and I saw her just during her last week – she could not talk, so I wish I could have seen her in Sept 2001.
While in Canada for the last 10 days we did not hear much US news (fortunately) but then I did not know Patrick Swayze died until I read your post. He was such a great dancer – it is very sad.
I loved your picture in black and white with your brothers and I remembered many of the things you mention like learning to type on a manual typewriter (while listening to music for the beat) in class at the Essex College I attended in Dagenham, England. Congratulations on your new job – Toutes mes Félicitations as we say in French and I am pleased that you celebrated with a French Champagne (are they any others?) I enjoyed the botanical garden very much and was delighted in your photos showing plants I had never seen (I learn so much from the blogworld.)
I can relate to Climate Change – the area around Atlanta sure changed – I had never seen so much water around here, and was amazed that the little dormant creek next to us would become a white water river. Gosh, this is too long I’m stopping.
i endorse alan's idea!!!!! tis a great idea!!!!!! combining blog action day and theme thursday is brilliant idea!!
those are great pics.
sorry it took me so long to get over here. it was a crazy week last week but i wanted to say thanks for the pep talk after my crappy day
Tsup*!* ah Baino, I've been a born skeptic from day one. Humans are such a destructive sneeze on the life of the earth and yet there are those who believe they can put things right with carbon trading? It's just another tax to keep on doing what we are doing. And the likes of Al Gore (loud sigh), wouldn't have a dollar interest in their climate change agendas now would they? Geologists tell us that we should only worry when climate changes are not happening...
If governments were serious they would band together and stop the destruction of rainforests which are being planted not for food for the poor but for palm oil plantations so that people in the west can feel good about themselves for either driving on a green fuel or investing their money in such stupid green schemes.
oops .. brain moving faster than finger this arvo ;)
If governments were serious they would band together and stop the destruction of rainforests which are being destroyed
Don't worry Renee, mine's the same. If I didn't write it down . . then it's not a particularly special one but it's on the 16th. Don't worry, I'll be begging for presents!
Haha . . well there was a lot of tannage but looking at the size of those women wouldn't be enough to blush a fat woman's cheeks and I'm not talking about her bum!
Otin, I will remind you. If I remember . . slackers of the world unite! Tomorrow!
You're prolly the only one here that will Megs!
Up to you Pubster . . no need to support it. Like I said, my views on global warming are changing quite significantly. Let's put a cat among the pigeons!
Ronda, I remember posting last year on something similar after Adam had done a thesis on climate change. There is compelling evidence to say that it's natural, happened many times before and is a form of natural planetary attrition. But I'm saving it for later . . . .stop trying to 'eek it out of me!'
Vagabonde how could I not, it's a wonderful photoblog and so informative, I love it. I think the big argument is not whether the climate is changing. . it certainly is . . but what the hell is really causing it. I tend to think all this focus on C02 is a furfy to avoid the real issues of creating a sustainable planet . . there . just a hint!
Well we'll see. I'd rather see a whole range of issues discussed Kim rather than the tired old carbon trading debate. There are many things we can do which may or may not affect climate change but they will help the planet!
Both home grown Jaime! No worries. I'm time poor myself at the moment and tend to visit more than post. Good luck!
*Tsup*! *Tsup!* Bimbimbie. . . there's so much more than meets the eye. I'm just curious why it's so high on Kev's Agenda when he has no problem woodchipping old growth forest or granting more coal leases or exporting all our natural resources overseas and I think it a tad hypocritical to be lecturing others on C02 levels when ours are the highest per capita in the world . . my political skepticism is kicking in big time! And don't even get me started on the desal plant in Sydney when we still haven't even tweaked to subsidising the covering of inland irrigation channels! Fwoooaaar Hehe . . I knew what you meant. Stir it up on Blog Action day. You don't have to agree with them!
In the UK, we had a hailstorm in the middle of a summers day a couple of months back, it lasted about 10 minutes and the hail settled like a layer of snow on the ground!
Is this the world gone mad?
tis tempting, I just might*!*
I definitely will post on that date. Thanks Baino!
'There's nothing new under the sun' - surely this is applicable still?
We had lots of dust storms and hail storms in Adelaide when I was a kid.
I actually think the weather the last 5 to 10 years has been much milder (LESS extreme) than it used to be in the 1970's.
In NSW - I had a friend borrow a relatives car to go to Sydney back in about 1987 - there was a huge hailstorm there and the car was pounded so badly it needed dent knocking. He was pissed off - it was a borrowed car!
It's all been seen before.
Sounds like a great blogging day -- I'm in.
Hey Happy birthday even if I am late!
just checking to see your post for the blog action day...or was this it?
blimey.
actually we had similar here this Spring
Hang on.... here
but i think yours wins
(is everything bigger in Oz?)
and here I am worrying about a bit of bird poop on my car...
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