Speaking of Anniversaries
05/07/07 09:35 AM
It is fitting, just a
few days before the much anticipated Gore-Fest
weekend. Where people all around the world, (except
Rio) wil gather together and actually allow
themselves to be photographed and identified as
members of a cult that worships at the feet of THE
BIG LIE which trickles from the lips of failed
politician, internet inventor and Clinton patsy, Al
Gore. I would not doubt that here in Canada we will
once again be treated to the septugenarian with the
FuManChu facial disguise, our very own, David Suzuki.
What is fitting is that this event comes so close to the anniversary of the following event, as posted on one of my fave sites, www.smalldeadanimals.com earlier today.
July 5, 2007
70 Years Ago Today
1937 - Canada's hottest day on record; temperatures reach 45.0C (114F) in Midale and Yellow Grass, both in southern Saskatchewan. *
And still the dust blew.
On June 24 it blew with such fury that it forced the Moose Jaw fair to cancel its horse races and shut down. The force of the storms blowing across southern Saskatchewan was felt as far east as Winnipeg, where once again a dust haze obscured the sun.
Highways became so drifted with dust as to be impassable. South of Moose Jaw the blowing alkali from dried-up Johnstone Lake coated the countryside a dirty white and drove everybody indoors. Sixty miles to the south, near the town of Rockglen, Fife Lake, which had once been thirty-five miles long, dried up completely. Far to the east in the Oxbow area, the Lake of the Rivers went dry and in the process a great mass of prehistoric buffalo bones was uncovered. The farmers of the area lived that year on the returns they got from the fertilizer plants for the carloads of bones them managed to harvest. Near Arcola, the trains were dealyed by the myriaads of grasshoppers that lit on the rails and were ground to grease.
The Saskatchewan crop was destroyed by the fourth week of June. Then the heat got worse. At the end of June, 100-degree temperatures were common everywhere and the areas as far north as Prince Albert got a bitter taste of what Regina and Moose Jaw had experienced in 1936. The peak came on July 5 when it touched 110 degrees at Regina, Moose Jaw, and a dozen other southern communities. For the rest of the summer ninety-degree heat was the rule, for the hot weather extended well into August, and the records established all over on August 23, when it went well over the 100-degree mark again.
There had been hotter Junes than 1937, hotter Julys, and hotter Augusts, but taken together there had never been a longer and hotter summer. - James H. Gray, The Winter Years
Long before SUV's, plastic bags, snail darters and filter tip cigarettes we had extreme weather conditions courtesy of Mother Nature or Yahweh or whomever you want to tip your hat to. The Dust Bowl was by all accounts a full blown climatological disaster. But it left us a legacy of tough farmers, drought resistant wheat, some great John Steinbeck novels and rich banks in Central Canada.
One could argue that this period engendered a fierceness of independent spirit that still thrives today in Western Provinces and States. A spirit much admired in the rest of the country. A fine crop and an enduring strain of plain speaking, promise keeping politicians grew out of the Dusty 30's and we are all better off because of it.
One can only hope that the current crop of this stalwart seed has the courage to face down the bleating of the "Sky is Falling" crowd before they Rock Concert their way any further into the hearts, minds and wallets of those few of our citizens who seem all too eager to sign on to this latest religious fad and bumper sticker trend.
Yes, climates do change, naturally. But not just the temperature, wind and rain type of climate. Political climates are also subject to wild fluctuations and trendy causes. Not a good thing. Fortunately, I detect a tightening of the sphincter around the subject of actually breaking out the chequebook to pay off the blackmailers from Kyoto. Hang in their Stephen, this pendulum is swinging back towards sanity, slowly but surely.
30
What is fitting is that this event comes so close to the anniversary of the following event, as posted on one of my fave sites, www.smalldeadanimals.com earlier today.
July 5, 2007
70 Years Ago Today
1937 - Canada's hottest day on record; temperatures reach 45.0C (114F) in Midale and Yellow Grass, both in southern Saskatchewan. *
And still the dust blew.
On June 24 it blew with such fury that it forced the Moose Jaw fair to cancel its horse races and shut down. The force of the storms blowing across southern Saskatchewan was felt as far east as Winnipeg, where once again a dust haze obscured the sun.
Highways became so drifted with dust as to be impassable. South of Moose Jaw the blowing alkali from dried-up Johnstone Lake coated the countryside a dirty white and drove everybody indoors. Sixty miles to the south, near the town of Rockglen, Fife Lake, which had once been thirty-five miles long, dried up completely. Far to the east in the Oxbow area, the Lake of the Rivers went dry and in the process a great mass of prehistoric buffalo bones was uncovered. The farmers of the area lived that year on the returns they got from the fertilizer plants for the carloads of bones them managed to harvest. Near Arcola, the trains were dealyed by the myriaads of grasshoppers that lit on the rails and were ground to grease.
The Saskatchewan crop was destroyed by the fourth week of June. Then the heat got worse. At the end of June, 100-degree temperatures were common everywhere and the areas as far north as Prince Albert got a bitter taste of what Regina and Moose Jaw had experienced in 1936. The peak came on July 5 when it touched 110 degrees at Regina, Moose Jaw, and a dozen other southern communities. For the rest of the summer ninety-degree heat was the rule, for the hot weather extended well into August, and the records established all over on August 23, when it went well over the 100-degree mark again.
There had been hotter Junes than 1937, hotter Julys, and hotter Augusts, but taken together there had never been a longer and hotter summer. - James H. Gray, The Winter Years
Long before SUV's, plastic bags, snail darters and filter tip cigarettes we had extreme weather conditions courtesy of Mother Nature or Yahweh or whomever you want to tip your hat to. The Dust Bowl was by all accounts a full blown climatological disaster. But it left us a legacy of tough farmers, drought resistant wheat, some great John Steinbeck novels and rich banks in Central Canada.
One could argue that this period engendered a fierceness of independent spirit that still thrives today in Western Provinces and States. A spirit much admired in the rest of the country. A fine crop and an enduring strain of plain speaking, promise keeping politicians grew out of the Dusty 30's and we are all better off because of it.
One can only hope that the current crop of this stalwart seed has the courage to face down the bleating of the "Sky is Falling" crowd before they Rock Concert their way any further into the hearts, minds and wallets of those few of our citizens who seem all too eager to sign on to this latest religious fad and bumper sticker trend.
Yes, climates do change, naturally. But not just the temperature, wind and rain type of climate. Political climates are also subject to wild fluctuations and trendy causes. Not a good thing. Fortunately, I detect a tightening of the sphincter around the subject of actually breaking out the chequebook to pay off the blackmailers from Kyoto. Hang in their Stephen, this pendulum is swinging back towards sanity, slowly but surely.
30
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