New song from the Sand Spiders to commemorate the yack-fest of COP30 and the imminent conversion of gently sloping green to a water view:
Or, purchase a high-range, deluxe, executive version on Bandcamp:
According to the Clausius-Clapeyron equation (boffin-speak), for every 1°C rise in temperature, the air can hold about 7% more water vapor. Ergo, as we warm the planet, the air holds more moisture and produces… Well, more spontaneous water views aka floods, downpours, etc. etc.
The Auckland Anniversary flood of 2023 brought that into spectacular 3D detail for me. Where I live, an atmospheric river unleashed itself on my neighbourhood. Nearby houses had knee deep muddy water running through their kitchen. I was there, quite a few beers in, fumbling about trying to help them move their prized possessions to a higher shelf in the garage, watching the waters rise against their ranch sliders, wondering when they would break, or if we would be fried by an electrical short circuit. Fortunately, neither, and I half walked, half swam safely home to higher ground.
Something I noted is the calmness of a catastrophe. It’s not like in the disaster movies where everyone runs around like their hair’s on fire. Nope - we just got on with it, like it was totally normal. ‘Oh? The flood water is halfway up the fridge. OK, All good - at least the lights are still on’. Very surreal.
I wrote about the Auckland floods in an earlier song: Junk In The Storm. What I found so extraordinary about it is how normal it seemed; how naturally people behaved. No panic, just - ‘OK, this is bad, let’s move my new wave jazz-funk CDs into the car’.
Like in 2011 when I got home from work one day and our roof had been ripped off by a tornado. Fortunately, Mon was out at the time picking up the kids from school. Whaddya do? Panic? Yeah nah. Just deal with it and carry on.
That’s what this song is about: “look on the bright side, you get a water view.” I’ve got a feeling there’s going to be a lot more ‘water views’ in future.
I play the guitars and do all the vocal parts on the song - so now you know who to blame. Please forgive me.
Photo by Ludovico Ceroseis on Unsplash.
1 go ask a farmer if you wanna know if seasons are changing don’t need a science book to tell you things are going really strange go ask a politician if you wanna hear the same old lying come on! we can see it with our own damn eyes come on! what’s all this smoke if there’s no fire there’s no more hiding the future will sentence their crimes c but look on the bright side you get a water view a river running down your street no farm for tending no fence for mending what’s everybody gonna eat god only knows 2 go ask the children if they think everything will be alright what will we tell them that we did our best or just let it slide some people are saying it’s too late and we’re outta time come on! are we gonna lay down and die come on! it’s not over till we give up the fight struggle’s a journey worth doing cos doing it’s right
ngā mihi
Spidey Si