Category: environmentalism

  • The Curse of The Electric Light Bulb

    The Curse of The Electric Light Bulb

    Reading Time: 3 minutesHave you ever considered how nice it would be to wake up when the sun comes up, and to end the day when the sun goes down? In summer the days would be long and filled with memories. In winter we would head to sleep when the sun sets. Every day we…

  • A River Runs Dry, Wood builds a Natural Dam and Corn Grows Eratically.

    A River Runs Dry, Wood builds a Natural Dam and Corn Grows Eratically.

    Reading Time: 2 minutesWhen rain becomes a treat you get used to looking at rivers that are running drier and drier with every passing day. The river pictured below is so low that you see the river bed in many parts. It’s a meter or more below it’s usual level. Imagine being a weather forecaster…

  • A Tractor Ploughing A Dry Field in Switzerland

    A Tractor Ploughing A Dry Field in Switzerland

    Reading Time: 2 minutesToday a tractor was ploughing a dry field. A cloud of dust was not that visible but you can see that rain would now be welcome. I walked by the usual river and looked down and the rocks in the riverbed are uncovered. There is no water running over them anymore. I…

  • European Walks and Bike Rides

    European Walks and Bike Rides

    Reading Time: 2 minutesToday during my walk I noticed a sticker on a sign for EuroVélo.com. I don’t know how new the project is but I had not paid attention to the URL before. I like the idea of a European Network of Cycling Routes. I don’t need to capitalise these words. I just did,…

  • The Léman Rose by Seven Centimetres Overnight

    The Léman Rose by Seven Centimetres Overnight

    Reading Time: 2 minutesWith the weather system that we have had over Europe a lot of rain has fallen. So much rain has fallen that it has swollen rivers and flooded plenty of regions. In Switzerland, because almost everything is on a hill flooding might be noticed in some parts of certain cities, but in…

  • Rain and Water Tables

    Rain and Water Tables

    Reading Time: 2 minutesThere is an article on Swiss Radio and Television that discusses the positive impact that the flooding has had on the water tables. For several years not only have we had warm weather but we have also gone with very little or no rain for months at a time. During some weeks…

  • Switzerland: From Arid to Flooded

    Switzerland: From Arid to Flooded

    Reading Time: 2 minutesSwitzerland and Europe are currently experiencing flooding. All the major Swiss lakes are close to breaking their banks. A few weeks ago, you could read about how Switzerland had been so dry that it had started to register on the aridity index. Now it’s flooded. Some people are bored by the rain,…

  • The Pandemic Of Sisyphus

    The Pandemic Of Sisyphus

    Reading Time: 2 minutesWe are in a pandemic where the only disease vector is proximity to others, so in theory this is one of the easiest pandemics to overcome, and end. In practice people are like cats, and getting them to self-isolate is like herding cats. Paradoxically if people were as hard to herd as…

  • Ignored by Sunflowers

    Ignored by Sunflowers

    Reading Time: 2 minutesThe title of this post is a joke, not a serious delusion of isolation. I saw that a few sunflowers had come out but that they were looking away, rather than towards me. They are looking at the morning sun and I was walking in the afternoon. They are still in the…

  • Justified Self-Isolation

    Justified Self-Isolation

    Reading Time: 2 minutesIt is important to know that you are in Justified Self-Isolation. Over the last three or four days I have felt like an idiot for self-isolating, but I now see that this is entirely justified. The R number for some canton went from 0.70 or so up to 1.4 or higher in…