We finally got a pretty good rain a little over a week ago, which allowed farmers to get some, but not all, rice paddies transplanted.
The rain was spotty, so some places still haven’t gotten any rain — and here, it was only that one day, and no rain since.
This is the first time it’s ever happened in recorded history that the monsoon rains have been so late in coming, and it looks like they might not come at all.
Maybe this is just a one-year thing, but nobody’s betting on it. The rainy season has gotten shorter and shorter over the past 30 years. This is not only in Laos, but in the whole region. Vietnam and Thailand, major rice exporters, may not have enough rice for their own populations this year.
The Lao government keeps 10% of a year’s consumption in reserve, and has already begun to release that reserve to make up shortages from last year’s short crop.
If we’re not going to get any rain, I’m going to start leaving my raincoat at home. ;>)
On the other side of the world, Lake Superior’s surface temperature is 20 degrees above normal for this time of year.
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We had a record-setting winter, here, that was indisputably caused by more heat in the atmosphere. Now, we’re in a record-setting summer indisputably caused by more heat in the atmosphere.
I don’t see any need to argue about whether or not some of the heating is due to “natural causes” and some is due to “man-made causes”. The man-made component is undeniable, and it’s something we can do something about.
Obama’s funding solar, working on increasing mileage standards, trying to stop off-shore drilling. The House has passed cap and trade, but (as is always the case, now) the Senate is holding it up. The GOP line is that they don’t want the Democrats to “exploit” the Gulf disaster. In fact, it’s crises that stimulates congress to get off their fat, lazy, wealthy asses and get things done for schmucks like us. “Exploiting” the Gulf disaster is EXACTLY what should be done.
What I’d like to see is pressure put on GM to increase production of Volt cars. The market’s going to be flooded with Leafs and Prius’, and GM can only turn out 10,000 this year? Bullshit. Hire a shitload more people, make more parts in the USA, turn out more Volts, and PUT PEOPLE BACK TO WORK. There might be some Gulf oil drillers looking for work, eh?
But, let’s face it. There’s too much oil money in politics, still. And I’m not sure how to fix that.
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The number of 4-wheeled vehicles is exploding here in Laos, and 100′s of miles of roads in this province that were not much more than dirt tracks 5 years ago are now wide 2-lane paved roads. (Two-laned roads here are wide enough to use as 3 lanes in most places.)
A few of us teachers were sitting in front of the college, watching the traffic as we waited for students to arrive. Motorbikes are still the majority, but a four-wheeled vehicle passed every few seconds. One of the other teachers commented, “Ten years ago, you’d see maybe one four-wheeled vehicle in half an hour.”
Roughly half of these vehicles are used Hyundai pickups, owned by farmers and small businessmen. The other half are brand-new SUV’s, owned mostly by businessmen (and some by government officials).
At the same time the country is drying up in front of our eyes, they’re still making plans to build huge new hydro-electric dams to sell power to Thailand.
I’m not at all optimistic about people with money and power doing anything serious about stopping global warming.
After a very, very hot day yesterday, we did finally get some decent rain again last night, though, the first in over a week. We’re getting perhaps 5 percent of the amount of rain we’d usually be getting, and the rainy season will be over in a couple of months. There is almost never any rain during the dry season, which used to last about 6 months a year, but now lasts 9 or 10 months a year.
It seems as this place will soon be turning into a desert. North of Thakhek, it’s possible to wade across the Mekong River. It’s hard not to think about it just about constantly. I hope I’m just being Chicken Little …
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