blamebrampton: 15th century woodcut of a hound (Default)
blamebrampton ([personal profile] blamebrampton) wrote2010-12-09 09:58 pm

More advent-ures in .... zzzzzzzzz ...

Oh god it is so hot here I can barely function ... which is no help to those of you with two or three feet of snow, sorry!

A large part of NSW and Victoria is currently underwater, including half my mum's cousin's farm. Happily they have high territory, too, and lots of warning, so the goats and ponies are all dry. This is more than can be said for the livelihoods of many cereal farmers and the homes of many locals, which are all underwater, the poor buggers. Thankfully few lives lost as yet.

The one upside of floods is no fire (yet. If the water goes away and things grow quickly and then dry out before the hot season passes, March could be grim.) This is more than can be said for Israel. [livejournal.com profile] tsosh , news reports here say that the international effort combined with rain has seen the fires finally extinguished, is this true? So much devastation ... it's just awful.

If anyone knows of a good forest care group in Israel, I would like to send some of my Christmas money that way (says the atheist, look, it's ecumenical here!). A group that encourages natural regeneration rather than plants trees would be ideal, as the Carmel area says nature, not rows of pines.

Sorry for being such a craptastic commenter of late, I have melted. Monster and I spent yesterday competing for Sluggiest Mammal in the House, then Mr B came home and showed us how things were done.

[identity profile] schemingreader.livejournal.com 2010-12-09 01:26 pm (UTC)(link)
The New Israel Fund is collecting donations to disburse to grassroots groups on the ground, which will give some attention to Arab and Druse as well as Jewish victims of the fires. See their British site here and their US site here. I don't know how environmentally responsible they are, but after Hurricane Katrina, I like the idea of funding grassroots groups for relief.

Another possibility is the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (which always makes me think of a popular Hebrew song from when I was a kid--found a remix which isn't quite the same but I figured I have to satisfy your curiosity if I mention it!)