After a decade of worst drought in Australia for hundreds of years, the rains started to arrive on second quarter of 2010, bringing back life to their parched lands like the one below.
Unfortunately, the rains showed no signs of stopping, and continue to cause floods in some parts of the island country, their worst in 200 years.
Exactly the same month 2 years ago, Baghdad experienced snow after more than 40 years in living memory.
Middle of last year, Russia experienced their worst drought and heat wave for the last 50 years, resulting to wildfire and crop failure, affecting their wheat production and pushing up the flour prices.
Since last month, eastern coast of US have been affected by snowstorms, disrupting flight schedules of stranded passengers.
Rains are rare occurrence in the Middle East, but floods are less uncommon in Jeddah and Dubai since 2009 up to last year.
Here in the Philippines, the islands of Leyte and Palawan which should be enjoying good weather at this season, are also experiencing heavy continuous rains thereby causing floods as well.
Scientists say that all the above extreme weather conditions may have happened before in previous millenniums, and they are just triggered or aggravated now by the El Nino-La Nina weather phenomenons. With hard evidences drilled from the bottom of the oceans or ice core samples from Antarctica, it is easy to accept their theories. However, its not easy for us humans to just accept our fate with the violent whims of nature. Just imagine the scenes from "The Day After Tomorrow" and similar-themed films, and it will give you a different scare from the usual zombies and vampires.
I think we have no choice but to help our planet in maintaining its equilibrium, by reducing our carbon footprints, try to reverse the global warming phenomenon, etc. Not really for ourselves, but for our children and the next generations. We can do our part like start riding the bus to workplace, minimize the usage of plastic bags and packaging materials, plant some trees, reuse/recycle wastes, conserve water and other resources. I'm trying to do those things, but I still have to be more consistent. I hope that everyone do their part as well.
Photos above are not mine, as they are owned by AFP, Reuters, Pravda, UPI, Watan, and Time.com
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