In Flames

 

(Image by DeSa81 from Pixabay)

Recent reports of forest fires around the world have been distressing. Conflagrations that burn and burn have to be one of the worst human nightmares. 

Closer to home, we have suffered our own blaze as the local television mast went up in flames yesterday depriving almost a million homes across the region of their radio and TV reception, "indefinitely" according to some reports.

Obviously a Smart TV would be the answer but with the constraints on rural broadband I'm unsure how many people will be able to rely satisfactorily on this if everyone starts to stream at the same time. There are also many households (we being one of them) who don't even possess such technology although we do cast to our living room TV from a variety of other devices instead.

Fortunately we are still at that stage of retirement where the television set is frequently silent as we find other diversions to distract and entertain us. Fast forward another 20 years,  however, and our dependence on that box in the corner may well change. 

In these days of staycations and social distancing, for many elderly and vulnerable people the televison and radio are a beneficial and, dare I say, even essential connection to the outside world and on which many of them clearly rely. Indeed on my next visit to my mother, I now have to remember to download the BBC's iPlayer onto her tablet, just in case we really are going to be deprived for the long term. It is strange in the third decade of the twenty-first century to be contemplating life without the technology that we have grown up with, however temporarily.

Of course, it's a little thing compared to the problems that have been encountered in recent weeks in California, Greece, Italy and now Algeria. Strange too that after learning to live with a pandemic, it takes the loss of a minor comfort to bring home the reality of greater catastrophes and an understanding of how fragile the system in which we live and all the automation on which we depend potentially are.

As if Covid wasn't enough, newspapers are overflowing with bad news stories on climate change and the future impact on human life. Hugging a tree may no longer be sufficient when that simple retirement life I've been seeking appears to be hurtling into central vision, whether I hunt it out or not!

 

 


Comments

Jennyff said…
We’ve had a half a dozen small wild fires here, I say small, a few empty houses on the mountainside were destroyed and helicopters and planes dropped water all day. Sometimes the climate change situation seems desperate, you and I recycling and taking care while governments and big business allow our world to be trashed, I worry about what future today’s children face, we’ve known we were heading this way for years and let them down badly.
The TV is certainly a mainstay in most homes. Ours is a smart TV and we watch more streaming than we do the traditional TV channels. Here lately the news seems to be on repeat with COVID uptick and the world on fire. Even every weather forecast is "hot". I really wonder what this world is going to look like when my 2 year old granddaughter is my age.
Caree Risover said…
Nero fiddling while Rome burns seems the perfect analogy, Jennyff and I can’t help wondering the same thing, RetirementCoffeeShop.
Jeanette Lewis said…
Over 300 wildfires are burning in Canada, over half of which are out of control. One small town in British Columbia had all the homes destroyed. I can't remember the latest statistics on the number of wildfires there -- approximately 270! Firefighters from Mexico are helping locals to fight the worst outbreaks.
In Ontario where I live, wildfires are burning in the Northern regions. Several Indigenous fly-in communities have been evacuated. Yesterday 400 people were flown into our Southern Ontario city as no hotel rooms in Northern cities were available.
This summer is exceptionally hot and dry. Rains that usually help to keep the forest floor damp (thus inhibiting fires) have not come. Many fires start with lightning strikes; unfortunately, some are started by careless humans.
Caree Risover said…
Jeanette, that is awful and more so because I haven’t even seen Canada’s fires feature in our media and was totally unaware. I hope the rain comes soon.
Treaders said…
France typically gets wild fires every year, mainly in the south-west, but this year I haven't heard of any as it's been non-stop rain. The appalling thing about so many of those wild fires though is that many of them are started by arsonists. It's unbelievable that someone would do that and risk killing people and destroying homes and livelihoods. Sometimes I think never turning the tv on again wouldn't be a bad thing would it!
Caree Risover said…
Well I’d be lying if I said I was missing the TV but I honestly don’t watch it very much and yes, they are investigating whether or not the burning of the mast was arson or not. I can’t imagine how many matches setting fire to a metal pole would take, though.

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