Whose in interest? Whose responsibility?

"Francis Fukuyama was wrong, it is not the end of history, it is the end of the story of human in action." I wrote in my diary a few years earlier. And in the present I see that I was right. The human being, vulnerable to his needs and made dependent on systems and guided by algorithms, is trapped. There is no way you can take back control of your life, your environment, your destiny. Today I watched the small tide from the dam. The summers of 2022 and 2021 were a very vivid illustration of what summers will be like for generations to come.
Water is vital. It always has been. And I've watched the life-giving water run away, unable to get out onto the land. There is nowhere open for it to go in Békés County. In the 19th century there was a positive demand for grain. Well, short-term interest led to river regulation, which benefited the big landowners. Everything we experience today points to the fact that this was a misguided plan that made human life in the lowlands impossible. Water is the basis of life. Lack of water makes it impossible to grow grain, which leads to shortages, which can lead to famine! Nature is the supreme master, its laws cannot be broken without consequences, and don't think we can defy the trouble brought upon our heads! Because as I wrote at the beginning of this post, we are trapped.

This photo was taken in summer 2017 at my indicator place in Postelek. Chalciporus rubinus is one of the lesser known natural treasures of the county, and for me one of the most treasured mushroom. It is its small fruiting body dried out in the drought, unable to fully develop and sporulate. Drought has been a recurrent problem in Békés County, because for climatic reasons we are a moderately arid area and unfortunately we do not have large lakes and forests as natural water sources. The flooding of the rivers has provided a surplus of water that has allowed a rich biodiversity. The flooding caused many problems, but it was basically a necessity! Unfortunately the large river regulation works started in the 19th century had a shockingly negative impact on the landscape. I'm a shroomer and I know very well that my pets need rain to grown their fruiting bodies. But it's not just the fungi that suffer, the trees are also damaged! The pedunculate oak Quercus robur, our most noble indigenous tree species, is dying. Fraxino pannonicae - Ulmetum is our first plant community, the most valuable next to our remaining patches of stepp in its natural state. It is quite difficult to translate the Hungarian terms into English, but one important thing is that our natural vegetation, the groves, have been severely damaged and the process of drying is destroying them further. In addition to forests, swamps, marshes and riverbeds are disappearing. Why had to condemn nature to death in Békés County, and at the same time condemn the people living here to death?

The reason was the land hunger of the grain conjuncture in the 19th. Grains are a blessing and a curse, because their accumulation has made it possible to feed ourselves safely, which has led to a surge in births and an increase in our population. However, we were not aware of how fragile a system nature is and we were effectively draining its resources. River regulation seems to have increased the amount of land that can be sown to crops, but these areas have always been natural places for water and kept the county wet. Their draining and ploughing has led to the general drying out of the county! Human life becomes impossible. The picture shows the last generation, still born here, but certain to emigrate. Maize, which has only been known in Europe for a few centuries, was not grown in the county in the summer of 2022 because it dried out in the drought. Last year, two effects were amplified, one by a lack of water in the landscape and the other by a continental-scale drought. One of the causes of the Europe-wide drought is the cutting of the Amazonas rainforest. Vast forests play a major role in the global water cycle. This is not common knowledge, nor is a lot of what is essential knowledge for life and for the responsible management of nature's goods.

I had a dark view of our situation in the tree plantation, looking at the oaks in decline. Last August I wrote that there was no community, no nature, no money. Although the latter is not a real value, but only a means. It is the lack of nature and community that is the real tragedy. In November I wrote about what is wrong with the Hungarian nation. I have been thinking about a solution ever since, but finding any effective remedy for three centuries of decay is an impossible task. Even those who are much smarter and more powerful than I am have failed to set the Hungarian nation on a real course of development. I am aware that climate change is changing everything and is already affecting us. And you see that you are trapped. Community cooperation has made our species great, and the atomized, consumer-conditioned mass is eating itself. Is there any hope? Is there any point in hoping that my knowledge can be of use to the community, if not to the Hungarian nation, then to another? I also translated my portfolio into English in September. I know that time is running out, but I am also convinced that action is the only cure for our ills.
So I do my job.