CRAZY WEATHER HERE IN MAINE
Today we have snow
followed by rain, followed by temps in the single numbers. We used to be proud of our winter weather in the western
Maine mountains. I have seen snow so deep that if
you stepped off your snowshoes you would sink up to your chest; and February always
had two weeks of below zero temperatures.
Real Mainers didn’t complain.
However, in
the last few decades climate change is changing Maine. The last three summers have been the hottest in
recorded Maine history. My wife
and I lived in the Main woods in the early eighties for four years, in farmhouse
with no electricity, water or plumbing.
We planted a garden, carried water from the stream behind our house, bathed
in the stream, I cut firewood from the swamp in front of the house, we had a German
Shepherd; and never once in those four years did we have, or know of a
tick. Now you can’t step outside without tucking
your pants into your socks and spraying your ankles because the ticks are so
bad – deer are covered with them, moose are covered with them, and the winter
doesn’t kill them.
The local
news reported that Maine lobster men are concerned because the increased ocean
water temperature off our coast is driving the lobsters farther north.
This is the
new norm and we have to live in it. It
is what it is.
Man is
responsible for climate change. We are
the most destructive life form on this earth.
You can have your own opinions, but not your own facts.
Which brings
me to one of my pet peeves:
In the calendar that was modified by the Catholic
Church to coincide with Christian holidays, today is January 1st - New-year’s
day.
Yet, the solar New-year began on December 21 –
a far less arbitrary date to begin a calendar.
the Ol'Buzzard
