From the archive of the print Bulletin. This is Emily van Lidth de Jeude writing in the issue of 26 August 2015, in a series she wrote called Earth Day Every Day.
It is a column about gathering: aphids on the kale, cooler evenings, eating from the garden, and Earth Overshoot Day, which fell that year on 13 August. Partway through it becomes something else. She describes her own well running dry that summer, a shallow well dug into a small underground stream, the pump hitting air, and a household reorganising itself around what water there was.
That was eleven years ago.
EARTH DAY EVERY DAY III
The Bulletin, Vol 17, Num 16, 26 August 2015
The aphids, having sensed the weakening plants on a cool evening, have arrived. You might not notice them at first, as you pick a few beautifully green leaves of kale out of the garden, but turn the leaves over or peek between the deep green folds and you may find little pockets of grey and white: aphids gathering en masse. They will stretch their hair-thin legs and stand tall before becoming motionless on the spot, to live or die with the group, according to your whim. It’s gathering time.
…
This year we reached Earth Overshoot Day on August 13th. Overshootday.org states that “Global overshoot occurs when humanity’s annual demand for the goods and services that our land and seas can provide…exceeds what Earth’s ecosystems can renew in a year.” So we’ve been going further into resource debt each year for the past forty, and where are we going to turn when the well runs dry?
…
Our well ran dry this year – in the way wells do on these rainforest hillsides: it’s a shallow well dug into a small underground stream and the water level dropped below what we need to sustain our household’s daily usage. So when I say it ran dry, that means one day the pump hit air, and our family panicked a little. At the end of the day the well fills up again, but to a lower-than-average level. We can still use water, but one load of laundry means no more toilet-flushing for 8 hours; we haul water around to fill the small pots we’ve planted beside some shrubs and veggies and a new pump was bought and put into the pond to water the vegetable gardens; we save laundry and bathing for later, and save even the hand-washing water to feed to our garden. This extreme attention to water usage has meant an adjustment in our thinking, and although it was certainly easier when the water flowed carelessly, I’m glad for having to learn this lesson.
Quoted in part. The full column ran in the Bulletin:
Emily van Lidth de Jeude, “Earth Day Every Day III”, The Bulletin, Vol 17, No 16, 26 August 2015.