On a beautiful summer day, our group of boy scouts was gathered by the canal for a challenge, to build a vessel that could ferry us across and back.
We were given some ropes, carabiners, pulleys, and a good old-fashioned tear-drop type swing chair made out of rattan for the job.
The end result was a swing chair hanging off a tightly strung rope between two trees, and a rope on each side of the chair, to be used for pulling the chair across both sides of the canal.
The highlight of the activity was when a teacher came calling us in for lunch while we were in the midst of pulling our last guy, Cedric, home.
Now, Cedric was big for a teenager, weighing what must have been at least 110 kgs (220 lbs). Due to his weight, Cedric got stuck mid-way, and everyone got on the rope trying as hard as we could to pull him off the sagging point and up towards us.
In sight of the situation, the teacher called out with a grin on his face, “Okay boys, I’m afraid we’ll have to leave him there for now and finish up after lunch.”
We secured the pull rope to a tree and pretended to walk away. As we peeked over our shoulders back at Cedric, it was obvious that he wasn’t impressed at all.
Everyone burst into laughter.
This has been one of the fondest memories I’ve had of a summer camp. This also took place almost 30 years ago.
Global temperature has been on a consistent rise since the 1980s, and the rate of rising has been increasing. With the top 10 of the warmest years recorded in history taking place just within the past decade.
As the rate of climate change accelerates, our ecosystem is undergoing unprecedented shifts more quickly. Year after year, we’re experiencing noticeable changes in our weather.
It seems clear that all these are possible indicators of bigger ecological challenges ahead, and precautionary measures and adaptation of lifestyles to a changing…
