Asking too much of our planet

July 28th was Earth Overshoot Day. This is the day when humanity’s demand for natural resources outstrips the planet’s ability to regenerate within those 12 months. (earthovershootday.org) My daily newspaper the ‘i’ stated that the UK needed 4.1 UKs in order to meet the residents demands on nature. If we carry on like this there will be no ‘us’.

There is plenty we can do as most of my readers will know, recycling, natural forms of heating like solar panels, wind power, heat exchangers, There are plenty of solutions but that means a lot of change and many people are unwilling to change. Meanwhile energy companies are making what can only be called obscene amounts of profit while the consumer struggles to pay the bills.

Thousands of new houses are being built and none seem to have any form of alternative heating. There is also a lack of water for their supply and it seems that planners cannot join the dots and produce plans that take everything into account. Joined-up thinking is essential if we are to survive as a species.

Habitats are also being destroyed and many species of insects are losing their homes. This can be seen when flower meadows are mowed too early leaving no food for certain species. We have to stand back and look at the larger picture before deciding what to do. Can we work together to persuade those in power to also work together to make things better for us all not just the minority?

Earth’s message

Headline in my newspaper earlier this week was Earth’s message. The heat here in the UK is rather extreme and we are not used to it either. Other countries have this kind of heat and are laughing at us and the way we are dealing with it as transport fails and there is a desperate rush to buy air coolers. Our country is definitely not prepare for this kind of heat.

I have always enjoyed watching the Tour de France on my TV. This year there have been climate change protesters on the roads blocking the riders. They were moved by the police, having made their point to a certain extent. However some riders sympathised with the protesters but said they didn’t want them on their race! I have a feeling that many agree with the fact that our climate is changing and agree with the protests as long as the protests don’t affect them. Talking to others about this I get the same kind of response. As long as they are not affected it’s OK. No-one seems to realise that every one of us has to do something to change things, whether its stopping the climate from getting hotter or making less use of plastics and caring for water.

Climate scientists tell us that the world is getting hotter and have shown us on maps, how it could be by 2050. If the earth heats up as much as that then there will be little left of what we know now. Food will not be able to be grown especially if water becomes in short supply and we will need to change our diets. We are being pushed to change to a plant based diet at the moment but if it is too hot to grow plants, then what?

Water is also necessary for us to live and all the rest of the inhabitants on the earth.Some reservoirs are already dry and in some countries, some rivers have totally dried up. This is not new. I went to Spain about 15 years or so ago and the rivers were dry then and water was rationed.

Where is the forward thinking? Why do we only think about the here and now? What are you going to so, how much are you prepared to change?

Will the extreme heat and lack of water kill off this meadow?

Waking up?

Will this unusual excessive heat in the UK wake people up to the effect of changes in our climate? I doubt it but you never know. There are too many promises made by those in power but none of the promises are kept. But it is not just humans who suffer when there is excessive heat.

High temperatures above normal cause a lot of distress to our natural world. Every living thing needs water and when there are high temperatures there is often a lack of rain. So the grass is scorched and the plants are wilting and the leaves falling from the trees. But the living animals and insects also need water especially when it is very hot. I watched a butterfly dipping into the water on a lake earlier this week. Hedgehogs, birds and all other animals need water left out for them. Birds love to bathe in the water too and watching them in the past has given me a lot of joy.

There is a wildflower patch where I live but getting water to it is extremely difficult and there has been no rain for several weeks now. I am hoping to get my son to help me with a water hose next week so we can try to save all the plants that are there. I am managing to water my own bit of garden with a watering can carrying two of them on my walker/rollator thing.

But extreme heat cause lots of other problems too. We humans don’t cope with it well especially the older ones like me. Keeping cool is not easy to do in an upstairs flat even if you keep the windows closed as advised to do. But the road outside and parts of the pavement are melting in the heat which causes other problems. Rail lines buckle as do other things like a slat on one of our wooden benches.

So is all of this going to make people think about what we do in our daily life and ask questions about how we live and are going to live? Extreme heat causes crops to fail so no food and so on. Are we in a similar situation as is said in this American Indian prophecy ‘Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money‘.?

Moving onwards

When I was 60 years old I wondered if I would reach 70. 70 came along and passed and I wondered if I would reach 80. 80 came along and passed and now I am 81 and wonder if I just might reach 90. To do this some changes had to be made. I am an empath and pick up all kinds of positive and negative energy. I used to protect myself against it all but somehow in the last few years I had not done so and was feeling all the negative stuff that goes on in small communities like the one where I live. I decided to do something about this and now have some kind of protection when I am about. I also use my Ting-Sha to cleanse the energy in my flat and made sure all the crystals I have were cleansed and ready to use.

What a difference this has made but there were still some things to deal with. I have been reading about the connection between the brain and pain and decided I would do something to alleviate my pain as well. Mind over matter as I told the nurse when I saw the consultant last week. He could not believe that my pain was only one on a scale of 1 to 10 and that I only took paracetamol. But I will be stopping that soon and seeing how I go. I do have a definite injury but I believe that I might even be able to heal that as well.

I do believe that being outside in nature can heal all kinds of things and I continue to do this. My friend gave me two outside chairs which have arms and I am finding these very comfortable when I sit outside which I do as often as I can.

Thinking for myself is very important but I do listen to others if I feel they can help me in some way but I am trusting my intuition much more than I have for several years. I feel as if I have been given a new lease of life and hope this feeling will continue and that I might even be able to walk unaided. Positive thought works wonders!