Babylune

Babies and Global Warming

by kate baggott on July 20th, 2007

As you know, I am in Bulgaria and I don’t have a lot of time to post these days, but I have to talk about this…

Right now, Bulgaria is in the middle of an extreme heat wave and drought. Now, at least where I am, the weather at this time of year is always hot and dry. This year, though, the river (a creek by North American standards) that runs through our village is just a collection of still puddles full of frogs and little fish competing for space. One of the springs that feeds a tap at the end of the village is dry and the pumps that draw out water for the vegetable gardens are also dry.

This is a little more serious than it normally would be because the tomatoes also have blight. Now, I am going to make some pretty broad generalizations here and I am sure at least one Bulgarian reader (my husband) will have objections, but this is the way I see things here. Most families have an apartment in town and a house in a rural village. When the grandparents retire, they go to the villages and grow food for the entire family while their children, the parents, stay in the apartments in town and work for money.

The children, lucky kids, spend their school days in town and long holidays in the rural villages. Bulgaria is a second world country. It has modern conveniences, but systems are tough and family economies are cut pretty tight. Not having food from the garden might not hurt much for one season, but without canning and other kinds of preserves, going without would make the family budget scream under serious stretching.

No doubt, I’ve seen a lot of the effects of global warming and changing weather first hand here in Bulgaria, at home in Canada and living in Germany. I’ve contributed to it with frequent flights. But, every time I see a rainbow, I know that this mess is of humanity’s making and up to us to address.

As I sit here, one image comes to mind every time I think about the situation. Last year when I was here, it rained in August, which meant that it was safe enough to burn the garden waste. I parked the kids in little chairs, filled buckets with water and sand and we watched the fire as if it were television. When the flames were going, I tossed some of our household garbage onto the pile, including a disposable diaper.

After almost everything had burned, I put the fire out and we all went to bed. The next day, I planned to turn the ashes over into the soil to fertilize the garden. When I woke up, there was a pile of ash with one pristine white object in the middle. The outer cover had melted away, but the padding was as new and bright. The diaper was like a fresh snowball in a pile of ash.

It’s too dry and hot to burn anything in the garden now. In the garbage pile, there are fewer diapers than usual because the baby can run naked in the garden and start toilet training. Still, the naptime diapers are adding up. This is not the legacy of my parenting that I want to leave while the earth warms in some countries and floods in others.         

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POSTED IN: Baby Care, Mental Health