Tag Archives: climate change

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So how was it for you?

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“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” J R R Tolkien, The Hobbit

Boxing Day is sinking away beneath a full moon, as we flop into still spaces, and try to understand how to bring ourselves back towards some sort of everyday where there is no chocolate.

And while we flop, the world turns as it always has done, taking us and our muddle with it.

Here in the south of England the weather has been warmer than normal, warmer in a way that is hard not to notice. But perhaps that is a good thing. Perhaps, the combination of national holiday and unseasonal warmth will help to underline the shift that is happening to the climate. Perhaps it will mark the end of the year that helped to focus our wandering attention on the fractured weather surrounding us. Perhaps.

And if it does, then we’ve still got time to line up a whole new set of resolutions for next week.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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Our relationship with fire

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“What I desire is man’s red fire to make my dream come true.”

Lyrics from Disney’s soundtrack of animated Jungle Book

There is such warming power and appeal about fire when it is under control, and such a terror to it when it breaks free and threatens to consume everything in its path.

This year has been a horrible year for fire around the world. The fire I remember most vividly was the one that destroyed Lahania on the Hawaiian island of Maui in early August. It was such a tragedy, and the worst wildfire in the United States for over a century.

In the same month there were wildfires in Greece, and other parts of Europe, and the fires in Canada continued to spread. In Canada they began in June, earlier than usual, and to date they’ve been the worst fires on record for Canada, with more than 100 000 square kilometres burned. The average is apparently around 27 000. I have read that the Canadian fire service believes that over 70% of this year’s fires were caused by lightning.

So I wonder what we’re going to do with this growing threat from ‘man’s red fire’?

Clean up earth’s atmosphere as fast as we can has to be one thing, and then, alongside that, there seems to be some hope that NASA’s Fire Events Data Suite (FEDS) might help provide accurate information about the fires as they spread, allowing those who fight them to target their responses with more effect, and to better understand the causes of the fires in the first place.

I just hope that our environmental efforts, together with FEDS, and the work of so many courageous firefighters, will make a real difference to the places facing fire around the world.

Here’s a link to more information about FEDS.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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While we bomb and argue the planet waits

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“There is necessary wisdom in the give-and-take of nature – its quiet agreement and search for balance. There is an extraordinary generosity.” Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

There is something so persevering and calm about trees.

As we bomb, they grow. As we pollute, they grow. As we burn, they grow. As we flood, they grow. As we cause the seasons to slip and change, they grow.

They are the constant, quiet witnesses to our chaos, adapting through their roots to our calamities. Thankfully they seem determined to hold on, steady as pillars while we panic.

Perhaps they are smiling to themselves now, for surely they can see us digging and planting and praying at their feet – praying that they will not abandon us, praying that they will come back in their multitudes to clean our air, praying that they will continue to give us shelter as they have always done, praying that we are not too late to turn to them for help … again.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023