Looking Skyward: Times of drought have inspired rituals

Dallas Morning News | Editorials:

“Mother Earth produces little besides misery without Father Rain. As such, the ancients took extraordinary steps to appease the heavens in times of drought. ... Here's how Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941) described one such custom in Russia: ‘To put an end to drought and bring down rain, women and girls of the village of Ploska are wont to go naked by night to the boundaries of the village and there pour water on the ground.’”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Cute. Fun. Informative, but fluffy. Too bad DMN misses an opportunity to explain that there is a practical step that humans can and should take in the face of more frequent and extreme weather patterns: that's to modify our behaviors that contribute to climate change.

Dr. Kevin Trenberth of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explains: “The heating from increased greenhouse gases enhances the hydrological cycle and increases the risk for stronger, longer-lasting or more intense droughts, and heavier rainfall events and flooding, even if these phenomena occur for natural reasons. Evidence, although circumstantial, is widespread across the United States. Examples include the intense drought in the central southern U.S in 1996, Midwest flooding in spring of 1995 and extensive flooding throughout the Mississippi Basin in 1993 even as drought occurred in the Carolinas, extreme flood events in winters of 1992-93 and 1994-95 in California but droughts in other years (e.g, 1986-87 and 1987-88 winters).” (Ozone Action Roundtable, June 24, 1996)

Getting naked and doing rain dances is silly. Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels is smart.