The Transition Of A Crab Or The Effects Of Climate Change

In July 2011 severe rain fell on East London and on the Eastern Cape. Many villages and cities were flooded. Whole ground levels of shopping centers like Vincent Park and Hemingways and other shops experienced excessive water damage amounting to hundreds thousands of  Rands.

The beach was swamped with Bamboo, driftwood, tree trunks, broken boats, parts of decks and many other things that the sea had brought to shore. There was so much wood and debris that beach walkers had to make their way around piles of objects.

Sea creatures and other forms of sea life that I had not consciously perceived before found themselves stranded amongst the bamboo and driftwood. Big squid of a size that I had seen so far only exhibited as calamari steak in the fish shops were lying dead and entangled in seaweed.

This purple black crab sat, his fire red arms outstretched, on the beach.

I was still busy taking pictures from every angle when foam came out of it's mouth and it died.

When I walked on I found many more of them already dead.

But he thing is that this type of rainfall has been repeating itself during the last months.

South Africa is hosting Cop 17 in Durban, an international conference on climate change and global warming at this moment. The protocol of Kyoto is still a hectic discussion topic. But judging very subjectively from what I see happens around me in my life climate change is here to stay with us. 

Slippery When Wet

Christmas Time is the great holiday season in South Africa for everybody. It's summer in Mzansi and many businesses close their doors around the 15th of December or even earlier for a month of long anticipated  holdiays. 

That is the time when a majority of South Africans travel to the coast to enjoy the sea, the beach and the sun as well as many outdoor activities. But instead of summer, winter reigns in the Southern Hemisphere with temperatures of 12 degrees in the morning.

If someone still believed that global warming is only a threat to come and that we still have a lot of time to deal with it, spending the last few weeks with us in South Africa might convince him of the opposite and make it very clear that we are already dealing with the impact of climate change.

For him to steer alone a wheeled cart, fully loaded with sugar, weighing more than a 200 kg, down a steep drive way, flooded by rain and slippery as the mossy rocks on the beach, is more than an artistic endeavour. And still the rain is pouring. 

But God blessed Africa. One thing the African People hardly loose is their sense of humor.