Big Shifts: Water

Climate change is front page news, but now it’s the climate emergency, and in some parts of the world, the climate catastrophe. 

The northern summer started with the Californian bushfires, then moved to the Arctic fires, smouldering circles of peat burning underground, impossible to control. I followed links to local newspaper articles in the Arctic Circle, to read what people there were thinking. I learned about methane released as the permafrost thaws and the feedback loop between more carbon and more thawing. By the time the Amazon started burning, I hadn’t exactly lost interest, but I was exhausted.

A graph of rainy days in Sunbury woke me up. Sunbury now has 3.5 fewer rainy days in August than it did 50 years ago. I thought August was pretty wet this year, but the trendline is down. Inflows to Roslyn Reservoir are headed the same way.

And it’s getting hotter. As last summer lingered, my body told me ‘This is wrong.’ It was too hot too late into autumn. The Japanese Maple told me too: in that hot weather in May, half its leaves shrivelled up and dropped to the ground, brown. Then when it got properly cold, the leaves didn’t turn their deepest purple/crimson.

Life has changed for that maple tree, and for us. We have wasted the last three decades letting the ultra-rich set the agenda; now we must completely redesign our energy and food systems, fast. If we can get these shifts started in the next decade, then we will leave our kids a habitable future. If we don’t, us old folk will be gone, but they and their kids will have a really difficult time.

There’s a lot for the big end of town to do, but a small town like Riddell what each individual does makes a difference. Over the next few editions of Riddell Roundup, I will tell you about projects that are part of the big shifts, leaning into these shifts and learning as we go.

Ross Colliver, Riddells Creek Landcare