Rain Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus Rain

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Zusammenfassung von Rain

Name: Rain
Rating: 4 (17 reviews)
Author: Cynthia Barnett

Cynthia Barnett

A Natural and Cultural History

4 (17 Bewertungen)

10 Min.

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Naturwissenschaft Kultur Alternative Perspektiven

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Rain
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What’s in it for me? Learn about the fascinating world of rain.

“Into each life some rain must fall/But too much, too much is fallin’ in mine,” sings Ella Fitzgerald, and touches figuratively on humanity’s very conflicted relationship with rain.

We both need it – it’s the source of all the water on the planet – but at the same time we’ve often tried to avoid it. Give us rain, but not too much, since then our mood will suffer, or, even worse, the rivers will overflow, the land flood and the crops die.

In these blinks the nature and culture of rain are explored, as well as our complicated relationship to it – something that drives us to worship, condemn, forecast and even seek to control rain.

You’ll also learn

how rain caused the Great Famine and witch hunting;
how swindlers used to get rich on good rain; and
why rain can be colored, and even include falling frogs or fish!

Rain can give life and destroy it too.

Where would we be without water? Well, we wouldn’t be anywhere at all! Life on earth would not have developed if it weren’t for water. Today, water sustains our living world. It’s no wonder then that humanity has always worshipped rainfall.

Native Americans created dances to summon the rain. The Prophet Muhammad performed rain prayers, casting his arms skyward and turning his cloak inside out. In Judaism, rain is prayed for every year on the eighth day of the harvest festival, Sukkot. In 2011, following a three-month drought, a Christian governor of Texas declared the three days from April 22 through 24 as official prayer days for rain.

A lack of rainfall has, of course, been a serious threat for communities throughout history and around the world. However, too much rainfall is just as dangerous! Heavy rain brings mold, rot and mosquitoes with it, which in turn spread diseases.

Torrential rain can even wipe out crops and cause widespread famine, which is what occurred in Europe during the Great Famine of 1315–1322. Heavy summer rain prevented grain from maturing, which meant no crops could be seeded in autumn. The rains continued through spring and the sowing of oats, barley and spelt was impossible.

These rains not only caused some three million people to starve to death, they also led to a wave of brutal witch-hunting. Witches were accused of bringing on the hail and thunderstorms that had damaged the crops. Whether it’s the source of life or the bringer of death, rain is certainly powerful!

Umbrellas and weathermen have been around since the early stages of human history.

Today we have weather satellites orbiting our planet so we can figure out when it’ll rain. When it does, we’ve got waterproof jackets to keep us dry. Of course, observing and sheltering from the weather was much harder in centuries past!

Weather predictions, however, are no new invention. The Ancient Greeks gave us the earliest recorded attempts at the scientific study of rainfall. In his scientific treatise Meteorologica, Aristotle portrayed rainfall as one element of a sun-driven cycle that also determined the behavior of air, land and sea. Today, scientists consider sun, sea, wind and terrain as the main factors behind weather. Aristotle wasn’t far off at all.

Curious rains caused American farmers to move their crops to the desert and to rely on swindlers.

During the 1870s and 1880s, the dry, deserted regions of Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas were subject to some very curious weather. Rain increased, grass grew and soil became fertile. Farmers began to move further west as a result. Luckily for these homesteaders, the rains followed suit.

The further the farmers traveled, the better the conditions seemed to be. Rain was said to be “following the plow” and these ambitious farmers were thrilled. But not for long.

From creative arts to cosmetics, rain is a timeless source of inspiration.

Which country has the most authors in the world? And which city has one of the highest average cloud coverages and chances of rain? Iceland and its capital, Reykjavik. Is there a connection?

Well, it’s not impossible! Rain is a common source of inspiration for popular musicians, artists, writers and filmmakers. Just think of Morrissey, lead singer of The Smiths, who spent his teenage years in rainy Manchester. He declared that “teenage depression was the best thing that ever happened to me.” Who’s to say that the gloomy weather didn’t have a hand in it?

Frog rains and colored rains aren’t just meteorological myths!

On June 12, 1954, Sylvia Mowday experienced something startling. She had been caught in a rainstorm while walking through a park north of Birmingham, England. This was no ordinary rainstorm, however. Thousands of frogs were pelting down from the sky. Meteorological myth? Let’s look at the evidence.

Episodes of raining frogs, toads and fish have all been described throughout history. From Ancient Greek literature to medieval chronicles, to accounts from French soldiers fighting Austrian troops in 1794, strange rains have bewildered people time and time again.

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Worum geht es in Rain?

Rain (2015) tells the story of one of the most valued, destructive and inspiring natural forces on our planet. These blinks trace a journey from rain worship in ancient cultures to the use of weather forecasting throughout the ages – and even the scientific explanation behind raining frogs.

Bestes Zitat aus Rain

Rain can be a Janus; at once the face of salvation and despair.

—Cynthia Barnett

Wer Rain lesen sollte

Anyone interested in the relationship between the natural world and human civilization
Hobby meteorologists seeking some background to the science

Über den Autor

Cynthia Barnett is an environmental journalist who has reported on water from the Suwannee River to Singapore. She is the author of Mirage, which won the gold medal for best nonfiction title in the Florida Book Awards, and Blue Revolution, singled out as one of the top ten science books of 2011 by the Boston Globe.

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