Gawd its hot!

I came home today about 5 PM. It was 102, my wife said when she came home at 2 PM the thermometer read 105. Cotton fields that are not irrigated are closing down, and bolls starting to open. The yield in those fields will be lower than in irrigated fields, but they will get some cotton. I've gone by some bean field, soy that is, and the ones that were planted after the wheat was harvested are in bad shape. Small plants, many did not make it, the fields look sparse and thin. One field I went by this afternoon the crew was combining Milo. Milo usually looks like 24 inch plants with the seed head stuck in the air above the plant. These plants didn't look much more than 6 to 8 inches. It is a tough summer here in Northeastern Arkansas. No sign of rain, we've not had rain at our house since July 9.

I drive by ramshackle homes in town. I wonder what it was like before air conditioning. It must've been tough trying to sleep at night with no breeze, heat so stifling that it chokes a person. I can't imagine it.

Is this a cycle, man made or God's punishment. I don't think it is God's punishment, but as to man made or earth cycle, I cannot answer. I know there are those who feel man is consuming resources without concern and effecting our long term outlook. I also understand there are scientists that say there is evidence of wide swings in global weather throughout time. The problem is there is one variable in the equation today that did not have the general global impact that variable has now. MAN! A few open fires warming small groups and furnishing protection from prowling predators certainly cannot be compared to the huge gulping of resources that takes place to day.

One of the most observable patterns in the world is the interaction between predator and food source. Wolves on Isle Royale in Lake Superior have long depended on the Moose population. Good browse, good conditions, more Moose, more wolves. Poorer conditions, Moose starve, Wolves don't bear young to compensate. Mother nature will take care of man, when our consumption of resources becomes so great mother nature will shake her booty and readjust the equation to something more in balance.

We may die off as a species, or suffer losses we can barely comprehend, but mother nature will adjust the equation. You can depend on it. What should we do, I don't give a shit! I probably won't be around when the earth makes its correction, and the suffering mankind will go through before that adjustment will be enormous, and I'll probably miss that too. My kids, kids, kids... may not and I feel sorry for them, but the time is not right for the environmental police to take over. Maybe what we should do is encourage wholesale consumption of resources to hasten the equation adjustment. Hmmm, there's a thought.