It's the first storm of the new hurricane season and already the media is outside in raincoats acting like dumb kids. They somehow figure in order to be authentic, they have to stand outside, leaning at 45 degrees, risking getting decapitated by a flying piece of tin roofing. Hey, just point the stupid camera out a thick window, we can see it, dumb-asses!
The thing about this one, the first named this year, is that it powered up rapidly once it got somewhat organized. It may not reach hurricane strength, but it will dump alot of water, only in those areas that have pathetic drainage, of course, and the winds will be strong enough to clean out alot of those dead limbs that are otherwise out of reach in our trees. This does not bode well for the rest of the season, since it seems these things are going to appear, organize, and turn into the same kind of monsters that trampled all over us last year, perhaps quicker than most of us can get out of their way. Used to, these storms would form up over near Africa and slowly wind their way towards us, but now these bastards are popping up right off the coastlines and it's instant hurricane; batten down the hatches if you have any.
And we deserve it. We deserve it for ignoring the likes of Al Gore when he tried to bring attention to the fact that we have had a major impact on our atmosphere. We deserve it for electing conservatives who's favorite pastime is hiding their heads in the sand because they think denying problems make them go away. We deserve it because we have to make "statements" by driving the most stupid kinds of cars we can afford. We deserve it because we buy this myth that promoting conservation and efficiency costs money and jobs, when in fact it actually creates them. We deserve it because too many of us believe in a God that is going to come down and clean up our mess for us so we don't have to take responsibility for it. Can you spell "L E M M I N G S" ?This place is going to be a fantastic archaeologic site some time in the not-all-that-distant future for any alien species that happens to stumble across this planet. They are going to uncover evidence of an advanced civilization, and are going to be so puzzled trying to understand how a species that could build the things they dig up could have destroyed itself. Hopefully, the planet itself will have survived the upcoming environmental catastrophe as it survived all the others, and it's verdant plant life will have erased the ugliness we imposed upon her. Perhaps the rats, which seem to be able to survive just about anything, will evolve into a sentient species that doesn't trade common sense for the ability to love, create art and music, and ponder their place in the universe. Whoever comes after us, I wish them well.
4 comments:
Stay safe, my friend.
would an extra long .. longggggg.. bungee cord help?? we could attach one end up here.. and send the other end down your way... then when the winds hit.. you are sure to land up here .. we only seem to get months and months of snow.. followed by weeks and weeks of rain.....
morningstar
In an introduction to an anniversary reprint of Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton put forward some interesting conclusions arrived at by various paleobiologists. Fewer than 80% of the species that ever walked the Earth in its history are still alive today. Of those extinct species, very very few of them were killed by destruction of habitat (like the dinosaurs and the meteor strike, if you subscribe to that theory). Most of those species died because of the only other reason that species die out: Untenable changes in species behavior. They outstripped their own feeding grounds, overbred their habitats, destroyed themselves in interspecies and intraspecies warfare...in general, they screwed themselves into oblivion.
I read this introduction for the first time on September 10, 2001. Nuff said.
I wish the aliens who dig us up could somehow see that introduction first. It would explain a lot to them about human nature as they survey our wreckage and realize that we _knew_ it was coming...and did it anyway. It's a telling bit of humor that the only thing in an archaeological site more durable than a latrine is our trashpits--and in America, our annual phone-book discarding is the only trash layer that repeats like clockwork. It could tell the aliens that not only was our shitty nature tougher than our art or faith, we couldn't even call somebody for a clue about it. :-P
Kathryn, I can always count on you to add some "punch" to my observations; thank you. Self-destructive tendencies seem to be the end result of evolutionary directions that seemed to ensure survival during a "moment", but ultimately prove to be the wrong direction when the line is played out. Yes, bigger, badder, faster, more efficient works for awhile, until getting to damn good at it means you run out of food.
The species that have stuck around the longest seem to have some self-limiting mechanism that allows it to fail just enough depending on it's environment as to not allow it to destroy the very environment it depends on for survival. Success seems to be a hallmark of those that more or less keep their heads down while those that reign supreme, be they dinosaurs or human, only manage to do it for so long till their success comes back to bite them in the ass. I'll put my money on the cockroach.
I still think the meteor theory weighs supreme, since there are lots of geological fingerprints corresponding with these mass die-offs to account for the relative rapidity of their extinctions. But, yes, I also believe that many species, like you said, screwed themselves into oblivion due to their own pretards.
littleone.......bungy cords, huh? Kinky.......... :)
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