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With huge amounts of snow this week and more on its way, the climate change industry is moving into high gear to defend it's turf. It gets a hearing in the Telegraph which runs a story headed, "Snow is consistent with global warming, say scientists".
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Britain, it tells us, may be in the grip of the coldest winter for 30 years but the current cold snap does not mean that climate change is going into reverse. In fact, the surprise with which we have greeted the extreme conditions only reinforces how our climate has changed over the years, how amazing.
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Confronted with this speciousness, most people have difficulty suppressing the sniggers, except that these people are deadly serious. There is no way they are going to let go of the gravy train and admit reality.
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Thus we get one Dr Myles Allen, head of the Climate Dynamics group at Department of Physics, University of Oxford, leading the charge. "If it wasn't for global warming this cold snap would happen much more regularly. What is interesting is that we are now surprised by this kind of weather. I doubt we would have been in the 1950s because it was much more common.” "As for snowfall …" Well, Dr Allen has an answer for that. It "could actually increase in the short term because of global warming. We have all heard the expression 'too cold to snow' and we have always expected precipitation to increase." Thus, "All the indicators still suggest that we are warming up in line with predictions."
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So there you have it from the horse's mouth. If it is hot, its global warming, if it's wet, its global warming, and if it's cold, it's global warming, if it snows, it's definitely global warming.
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With Britain being so unprepared for the current round of global warming though, we hear from David Frost, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce. "I wonder," he says, "whether we have become a bit too complacent or we are being a bit too bowled over by the constant talk of global warming and the fact that temperatures are always going to rise, and therefore when something like this does happen we are caught very much on the hop."Mr Frost adds that, "We should be perhaps planning on the basis that there is more freak weather about and we shouldn't just buckle to it. There should be more planning going into it."
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He has a point. on that last issue. Our political masters need to ask themselves how many times the nation has been brought to a halt by the magnificent heatwaves we've all been enjoying recently, and how that compares with the estimated loss of £3 billion to the economy brought about by this very modest layer of the white stuff.
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THIRSTY PLANET (AN EXCERPT)
A NEW NOVEL OF GLOBAL WARMING
By Robert Tell (http://bobtell.com) ©2008
CHAPTER 1: 2121
The squatter’s arms ached from pulling the oars on the old wooden boat. It leaked in at least five places and he stopped rowing every few minutes to bail it out. In some places, the floodwaters were deep enough to present a real danger. In other places, it was shallow and threatened to bog him down and risk the loss of his precious cargo.
Two liters of clean, life-renewing water lay wrapped in oilcloth at the bottom of the primitive boat. The precious liquid’s previous owner died quickly and quietly when the squatter’s blade slit the man’s throat.
It was a moonless night and he found it difficult to see clearly as he neared his special place, a two story structure that was once a private home on a residential street (now a canal). Half of the first story sat under water, but the top floor remained dry.
He discovered the dwelling some time earlier. The days all blended together and he would have been hard pressed to say exactly how long the place had been his lair. He remembered that he was prepared to take it with stealth and violence—but he was lucky. It was abandoned. Left empty…like a cave.
Three of the rooms were bedrooms once upon a time. He chose the room with bears and elephants on the wall as his den, though he could not say why. There was also a non-functioning toilet on the floor. He couldn’t remember the last time he was able to use a commode that worked. Lately, his stomach was bloated and painful and he needed to relieve himself constantly.
There was a large container that was probably left behind by a previous occupant. He kept it in the room where he tried to sleep (his senses never really rested). It was light and suited his purpose. When it became full he emptied it out the window. He was not the only one to do so. The floodwaters everywhere were thick with garbage and human waste.
Somewhere, once, there was a woman. Children. A warm home. Safety. And plenty of food and water. A factory assembled parts for cars. He did something important and was respected for it. What was it? He could not clearly recall. It was long ago and was now just a fuzzy overlay in his mind. There were more pressing matters for him to think about. Like day-to-day, minute-to-minute survival.
It had been a long and tiring day with only the water to show for his effort. Tomorrow he’d have to find some food. Tonight, though, his priority was rest. He knew that danger might be lurking in the shadows, but just this once he decided to skip his usual security check and go directly to bed. He should have paddled around the house. If he had, he probably would have noticed the old canoe, poorly hidden and tied to a tree abutting the rear of the house.
He docked the oars and let his boat float noiselessly toward the window of his room. A rope ladder hung from the windowsill. As he climbed through the window, he sensed what was about to happen. He could see nothing, but he knew his time had come. It was with relief that he felt the blackness descend upon his consciousness.
(For more information about this book please see: http://bobtell.com)
Great intro to your book bob.
As to the global warming crisis, all I want to share is this. 25 - 30 years ago, we were taught that temperatures were dropping and that we should get prepared for the next ice age. Now we are all to be concerned with global warming and the shrinking of the polar ice caps. I find it difficult to believe that temperatures are rising as here in Oklahoma, USA, our high temperatures occured about 20-40 years ago. This all depends on the day as it does in most places around the globe.
It seems to me that it depends on what type of government agenda that is being pushed that determines whether we need to get ready for cold or heat. I know that we have to take care of our planet and ourselves and that we are allowing our fears to dictate our actions. I think we need to take a deep breath and accept the fact that we don't have control over the weather. That when it rains we need an umbrella and when it is sunny we need a cap and/or sunblock. We are expecting our climate to adapt to us when we are the ones who should be adapting to it.
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