Three Interesting News Items
Before I discuss festivals in my home town
Flood waters pour into Kati Thanda
(via The Guardian)
How a desert sometimes comes into bloom. Most of Australia is basically one big desert, yet it is one huge desert that—unlike similar-sized ones1 like the Sahara2, Arabian, Gobi and Kalahari deserts—is regularly invaded by cyclones3. Check the map below: the only other large desert that has regular cyclone invasions is Mexico’s Chihuahuan desert (which is about a third the size of the Australian one).
I can tell, because during my Australian total solar eclipse trip of April 2023, my sister and I had to leave Broome prematurely in order not to be caught by Cyclone Ilsa. Check out my post about this here: “Western Australian April Travel Blog-Part 1”. The flooding that these cyclones cause is immense.
But sometimes it’s not just cyclones. This year, Queensland saw record flooding caused by record rainfall. Like with rainfall from cyclones, that water has to go somewhere (before it evaporates) and the water from this record rainfall is now accumulating in Kati Thandra (Lake Eyre), which is normally a dry salt bed. These flood waters will ‘temporarily create a “feast” for animals—including frogs, fish and migratory birds such as pelicans—but die-offs were likely when evaporation sets in.’
Almost exactly as I’ve described in my story “The Frogs’ Pool” (also published on this substack, see link) albeit on a much grander scale. I find this absolutely fascinating, and I think these seasonal floodings are an important part of what makes the Australian desert special, together with its unique flora and fauna and its original inhabitants—the Aboriginal people of Australia (for a small glimpse of that, see my piece about Murujuga).
Amsterdam: sound of children playing not a valid reason for complaint, say experts
(via The Guardian)
NIMBYism, next stage. Or the cliché of the elderly person shaking their fist and saying: “Get off my lawn” is but all too true. It is hard to understate how stupid this is. While schools around the world are implementing restrictions on smartphone usage, we should welcome children who actually play outside instead of destroying their sight and rewire their brains by being on a smartphone all the time. Also, playing outside is beneficial because of sunshine exposure, exercise and development of executive functioning, taking risks and socialisation. On top of that, playing outside exposes children to germs, making them more resistant to diseases.
The reason I developed myopia is that I was (am) a compulsive reader and read books under my blankets with a flashlight in order to make my mother think I was asleep4. Now smartphones are the main source of myopia. If we want to avoid a literal army suffering from myopia (as in Taiwan), then we should encourage our children to play outside. I know I did when I was young (and there were no such things as an internet and smartphones). I think’s it’s also very good for developing your imagination.
So come on people, do the smart thing and let the children play.
[video note: ‘Let the Children Play’ follows after ‘Carnival’. More about Carnival in the next post.]
Real-world geo-engineering experiments revealed by UK agency
(also via The Guardian)
I am against this, in principle. The moment we think we can alleviate Climate Change through geo-engineering5 is the moment we stop taking beneficial actions against it (such as creating more sustainability). Yes, we should be attacking the problem at its root cause, not fighting its symptoms. I agree that ‘the UK’s gamble on solar geo-engineering is like using aspirin for cancer’. To quote:
“The UK government6 should not encourage false solutions and the people of the UK should not stand for it.”
Agreed.
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Author’s note: I was (still am) working on a piece about festivals in my home town, about five of them, but it has already ballooned to 3,200 words with still one festival to go. So I’ve decided to cut it in five (“Five Festivals in my Home Town-Parts 1 through 5”) which will go live over the weekend and beyond.
Also, I finally made the move from “X”—which used to be Twitter—to Mastodon (it took me well over an hour to set up my profile). Mastodon handle: @future_upbeat@mastodon.social . Bluesky to follow if I can find some time tomorrow. Thanks for your patience, thanks for reading and welcome all the new followers and subscribers!
And I mean sandy deserts, not the ice deserts of the Arctic and Antarctic;
Alright, the Sahara is truly supersized;
Hurricanes in American usage (soon to be renamed as ‘American Storms’);
It’s why my brother gave his children bedside lights so they could read at night without developing myopia. Which, of course, led to their mother complaining that they always slept too late…;-)
And I don’t consider afforestation (planting vast forests) geo-engineering because we’re already doing the reverse. We should stop deforestation first;
Or any other government, for that matter;