Join a local sustainability group. Think about, and then plan to be, resilient. Plant more trees (they soak up the water even in winter and young trees rarely topple,) plant native hedgerows like they do in Europe (they never topple or cause power outages, but they do serve as windbreaks, help mitigate flooding, and provide food and shelter for you, birds and other creatures.) Become comfortable with sharing what you have and receiving (not taking) what you need. All of these things are counter-cultural, but then, so is climate change.
NOTHING can stop the onslaught of Mother Nature! All we can to is hunker down and try to stay safe. Storms are now much more violent and take a bigger toll on lives and property. Jesus take the wheel....
Yes, get ready. As a long time climate-alarmed resident (hard to really say activist, since nothing much seems to matter to the "power" structure -pun accepted), I am not surprised and I struggle to stay motivated. Education is key, if you can get around the fossil fuel industry's misinformation. Much of what we do as individuals is nice but not enough by many degrees of magnitude. Resilience and sustainability are both important but really we need to move into harm reduction planning. The forecast for New England, coming true on a regular basis, is an alternating pattern of very dry and very wet, emphasis on the latter. Those solar panels I put up 7 years ago will struggle to capture enough sunlight to make a dent. I could go on, but it's the holidays ... there will be a march on Feb. 2, noon, from the Old State House to the Capitol to demand more action from CT, at least. It's something, at least.
At home, things were OK. In town, I'm guessing not so much, because the schools (in about all of our surrounding towns) closed. I took a scenic route to work seeing that there were a bunch of road closures that I expected would cause traffic (it didn't). Driving home, I was shocked at the amount of cars heading east on Old Farms Road in Avon. The Husband reminded me that a couple "major" eastbound routes in Simsbury were still closed. I was terrified driving under some traffic lights that were seriously flapping in the breeze. Climate change? Nothing to see here folks, move along.
The photos on local news web pages were pretty stark. How much more evidence we need. And I know what you mean about lights twisting. I watched a tree out front just certain it was being wrenched out of the ground.
It was around noon when it stopped raining yesterday and I decided to start walking to the train station in Windsor Locks
There’s a stream that passes under route 5 that I walked past that was running wild
My walking route goes across the 140 bridge
As I was crossing , I looked down near the bank of the river at a homeless camp , maybe 20 feet away from the river
There’s also a camp on the other side of the bridge roughly in the same situation
My return trip was just after 4 and crossing the Windsor Locks canal I could see how much the water had risen and I knew that at least one of the camps on the other side of the river was not going to be there and I’m sure that both are gone now
There’s actually quite a few homeless camps that I think are far enough away from the river that I don’t think they will be affected , at least for now
We slept thru our power outage, thankfully, and it was only a couple of hours. You’re right about this becoming nothing unusual, sadly. It will only get worse.
I live on the main drag just outside New Haven, and I hardly ever lose power, but we do have some flooding and downed trees and power outages elsewhere in town. A tropical-like storm in December is most unusual, and I'm just glad it wasn't snow.
Vital words: "Let's join hands and move forward."
Join a local sustainability group. Think about, and then plan to be, resilient. Plant more trees (they soak up the water even in winter and young trees rarely topple,) plant native hedgerows like they do in Europe (they never topple or cause power outages, but they do serve as windbreaks, help mitigate flooding, and provide food and shelter for you, birds and other creatures.) Become comfortable with sharing what you have and receiving (not taking) what you need. All of these things are counter-cultural, but then, so is climate change.
Precisely. Hadn’t thought to join a local group. I bet I could learn something. Thank you for these suggestions.
No school for this teacher yesterday — yippee! Snow days without a flake to be seen: the new normal in climate-changing times.😢
My grandkids didn’t have school AND they still don’t have power. I hope you spent the day doing something you wanted to do.
NOTHING can stop the onslaught of Mother Nature! All we can to is hunker down and try to stay safe. Storms are now much more violent and take a bigger toll on lives and property. Jesus take the wheel....
Yes, get ready. As a long time climate-alarmed resident (hard to really say activist, since nothing much seems to matter to the "power" structure -pun accepted), I am not surprised and I struggle to stay motivated. Education is key, if you can get around the fossil fuel industry's misinformation. Much of what we do as individuals is nice but not enough by many degrees of magnitude. Resilience and sustainability are both important but really we need to move into harm reduction planning. The forecast for New England, coming true on a regular basis, is an alternating pattern of very dry and very wet, emphasis on the latter. Those solar panels I put up 7 years ago will struggle to capture enough sunlight to make a dent. I could go on, but it's the holidays ... there will be a march on Feb. 2, noon, from the Old State House to the Capitol to demand more action from CT, at least. It's something, at least.
I appreciate your efforts, and I mean that. I can always take more action, but yes, we need Action.
At home, things were OK. In town, I'm guessing not so much, because the schools (in about all of our surrounding towns) closed. I took a scenic route to work seeing that there were a bunch of road closures that I expected would cause traffic (it didn't). Driving home, I was shocked at the amount of cars heading east on Old Farms Road in Avon. The Husband reminded me that a couple "major" eastbound routes in Simsbury were still closed. I was terrified driving under some traffic lights that were seriously flapping in the breeze. Climate change? Nothing to see here folks, move along.
The photos on local news web pages were pretty stark. How much more evidence we need. And I know what you mean about lights twisting. I watched a tree out front just certain it was being wrenched out of the ground.
It was around noon when it stopped raining yesterday and I decided to start walking to the train station in Windsor Locks
There’s a stream that passes under route 5 that I walked past that was running wild
My walking route goes across the 140 bridge
As I was crossing , I looked down near the bank of the river at a homeless camp , maybe 20 feet away from the river
There’s also a camp on the other side of the bridge roughly in the same situation
My return trip was just after 4 and crossing the Windsor Locks canal I could see how much the water had risen and I knew that at least one of the camps on the other side of the river was not going to be there and I’m sure that both are gone now
There’s actually quite a few homeless camps that I think are far enough away from the river that I don’t think they will be affected , at least for now
Oh, wow. I hope they found places to hunker down. It's so hard to see more and more people sleeping rough like that.
Was not bad here. Lots of rivers continuing to rise though.
Righteous poetry there. Thanks!
We slept thru our power outage, thankfully, and it was only a couple of hours. You’re right about this becoming nothing unusual, sadly. It will only get worse.
I live on the main drag just outside New Haven, and I hardly ever lose power, but we do have some flooding and downed trees and power outages elsewhere in town. A tropical-like storm in December is most unusual, and I'm just glad it wasn't snow.
(Part of me wishes it had been snow, but I get your drift.)
I see what you did there!