I have been getting outside (mostly in my yard— I’m a wannabe permaculture gardener) a bit more since the weather has begun getting better. That is, if you overlook almost 40 degree drops in temperature from one day to the next, and my first Haboob since returning to Texas in 2020. I’m pretty sure we experienced (at least) one when we lived here previously. I just wasn’t aware that they had such an odd name. It almost seems sometimes, that with the advent of the internet, mankind got around to giving exotic and often egregious names to any weather condition or anomaly previously overlooked or unprecedented. At the very least, we are all more Aware of these names.
Until a couple of decades ago, I did not know that Hurricanes went up past Category 3. I had never heard of a bomb cyclone, thunder-snow or a polar vortex, glaciers of hail, triple digit temperatures in Siberia or tundra fires. And this is only the tip of this meteorological Iceberg.
There are, of course, still lots of debates going on about Climate Change (whether or not it is occurring???), whether it is a natural cycle or man-made, and what should or could be done about it. While the debate continues, deforestation (the world’s forests were reduced as much in the past 100 years as in the 9000 years preceding.) and desertification (currently over one third of the planet is threatened with desertification, and almost 30 million acres is added to this every year now) are becoming major global concerns. Desertification is caused by irresponsible land management practices (many of the new arid areas are former cropland), poulation pressure, poverty, CO2 levels, and other environmental factors.