Earth Day - Have we left it too late?
Listening to the rain battering down day after day just over a week ago, made the alarm bells go off.
Then all hell broke loose, as I shared about how we were adrift in the storm!
To sum it up briefly, we heard a thunderous noise followed by screaming when a mudslide hit our neighbour's granny cottage, with a young man inside.
I will never forget that feeling - is the young guy still alive or is he trapped, what could we do to help? A million thoughts went through my mind! Who do we call in a situation like that?
The young man escaped just in time but naturally was severely traumatized.
About two hours later, another humungous mudslide hit and destroyed most of their neighbour's home, they miraculously escaped; had they been on that side of the house, they most certainly would not have made it out alive!
Fortunately all our friends survived, but over 400 have not been so lucky, with many still missing!
This massive crater is now running right against the side of our neighbour's home, where the second massive mudslide took place. I took the pic below from the house that was destroyed, and could not get closer, so one does not really get a good perspective of it, but should there be more rain, our neighbour's home will certainly be in danger!
Images taken by my neighbour, their once pristine garden destroyed by the forces of nature!
Image below is a view of the crater from our neighbour's side, showing some of the destruction of the home of our friends next door to them.
Edit to my post - to add insult to injury, our friends' whose home was partially destroyed, was vandalized yesterday by thieves ripping copper pipes off the walls and stealing small items from the one bedroom that's accessible. The mud thankfully stops them from opening the cupboard doors, so they now have 24 hour armed security!
All this was caused by the subtropical Depression Issa.
Global warming is playing a role in these unusual and severe weather patterns; have we left it too late or can we still try and do something about it?
What can we do?
Tomorrow is Earth Day and I believe we can still effect small changes.
Start in the home by recycling as much as you can by having separate bins for glass, paper, plastic, compost; you'll be surprised how much smaller your refuse bag will be.
We recently went on a beach walk, and every so often one would see old plastic washed up and half buried in the sand; what is this debris doing to marine life?
Although it may seem minuscule, we can try and bring about small changes; teach our children to be responsible and look after our planet, get the older children community involved, create awareness and arrange a beach clean-up; or take a bag to pick up rubbish when you take a beach walk.
I know many will say "It's not my job!" BUT it is our earth!
We need to start taking responsibility when the authorities are lax; clean up the sidewalks ourselves as many people simply toss rubbish without thinking when walking and willfully when driving, as we see here on our highways in the suburban areas!
Take a peek at Earth Day on how you can help trying to save our planet, and watch out for events in your area tomorrow, but continue taking responsibility for Mother Earth every day of your life!
Finally try and be proactive by cleaning up your little part of the world as best as possible; is that not what our forefathers taught us or have we forgotten?
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A recycling company started operating in our area a few years ago.
Aside from ourselves, I only saw 2 or 3 other bags of recycling being put out in our crescent. I was shocked. They make it so easy! There's no need to sort the recycling. It all goes together in a clear bag which they sort through.
Over the years I've seen the bag rate increase, however it is likely still below 10% of the households that contribute.
As for my rubbish bin, it's a bag or two a week that ends up in there.
It's shocking how people still don't make use of recycling services!
Ethekwini gave/ now again, gives us orange bags for paper & plastic only. We did not get it for about 2 years because of a tender mess-up, they couldn't get orange bags from the supplier!!!
We separate the glass and take it to the dump, which is well-run as they have separate areas for all kinds of waste. Our domestic worker takes all our cans & sells it so that serves a double purpose as she gets a few rands in her pocket and the cans get recycled. It's light to carry and she gets picked up at our gate by her lift club.
We can each do our little bit to make a change.
"Education" cares more about Math & Physics then a clean sidewalk... #justSaying And while we started to inform and "demand" the officials of the community here, the only thing we really received was "hatred" from the neighbours. 🤷♀
Will the people ever wake up? You've hit the nail on the head, it should be part of the school curriculum and perhaps then the big kids may just learn some lessons from the young ones not so!
Beach walks or walking around town dog a poop scoop and packet, dual purpose is to clean after doggie doo and collect waste plastic strewn everywhere. I carry a 'flick knife' also dual purpose, protection if anyone comes toward me aggressively, or on more than one occasion removed fisherman lines from tangled birds struggling.
Trust things are looking a little better inland, we still without water, Oh boy how we all wishing it would be repaired, buckets and bottles fashion parade every morning....
!LUV
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I started smiling, thinking of you with a flick knife, but how awful what the fishing lines do to the birds 🤬
We've been lucky with the water, but just be careful when it does come on as there's so much air trapped inside, so just open the garden taps slowly at first, also gets rid of some of the sand and turn the indoor taps on slowly afterwards. A valve blew/burst at the complex my brother lives in when their water came on!
Take care Joan!
Amazing how many birds over the years I have assisted, bit of a problem using old beach towel to subdue them, they really never happy at the time.
Turned outside tap on for a short spell to run the air through will test again now since the water really only just came on, flies are attracted to us!
Hope the neighbours are managing, I know everyone is helping each other through this rough time!
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