Today's post is to recount last week's typhoon, the first of the season and what should have been a pretty exciting time- typhoons in Taiwan generally don't generate a lot of damage, like they do in the Philippines, but they do bring much needed rain to the island. In fact, since I've lived in Taiwan, there has always been a drought in progress when typhoon season arrives, so the rains that come with rainy season are actually really essential for the lush growth this island is so well known for.
Unfortunately, in the last few decades, global climate change and more local environmental changes caused by industrial development across the island have caused more rain to fall in a much shorter amount of time than was previously standard. This means that despite typhoons being mostly benign as long as the government calls a typhoon day for more serious storms and people stay out of the winds, the sheer amount of raining falling here in just a few months can have devastating consequences to the surrounding environments. One result, caused by heavier rains and deforestation, is heavy sedimentation build-ups in our reservoirs, streams, and other bodies of water, which limit water availability and can negatively impact local wildlife. Click here for a really fascinating movie about Taiwan's development and its environmental impact.
This problem is sadly not unique to Taiwan; in fact, the US and many other countries are currently facing this very same issue. As sediment fills our reservoirs while our annual water consumption rises, we will eventually run out of usable water. A pretty scary thought. And yet, there's just as much rain falling as before, so there must be a way to harness it somehow...
Anyway, onwards to the fun! Jenny and I did some grocery shopping in preparation for the typhoon, and as usual, all of the produce has sky-rocketed in price. For example, tomatoes pre-typhoon at normal price were about 70nt for 4 small tomatoes. However, the day before the typhoon they were 99nt for 4! This is an unfortunately common occurrence here in Taiwan; the hiked up prices are the "insurance" for farmers who may end up with damaged crops after the typhoon. Still, it's a bit of downer when suddenly food nearly doubles in price (in some cases, it does in fact literally double in price, particularly for leafy greens which sustain the most damage during typhoons). And, I would imagine that it may in fact become unaffordable for some... I know it hurts more than my pride when the prices go up so high!
The price differential discussion out of the way, Jenny spotted a box of ginormous mushrooms for a very cheap price (45nt), so she jumped at the opportunity to buy them. When we actually brought them home and had a better look at them, we realized that they screamed for silly photos, and since it was a typhoon day and we were stuck inside until the winds died down, we decided to go for gold and take a series of mushroom photos. I'm only including two here though since I have a feeling it would be very easy to overdo mushroom pics. Looking back on it now, we probably should have taken some equally silly photos with the dogs and ferrets, but perhaps that will be a project for the next typhoon day!
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