I recently bought a weather station in anticipation of 2019 being another record breaking year. We have already had the warmest February day on record, topping out at about 21 °C in some areas and had a mini heat wave in early May where several days were well into the twenties. So, why not get a record of all this for myself I thought….see climate change manifesting itself in real time. But seeing it is one thing, doing something about it is another, and there has been much discourse in the media over the first few months of the year. We have had a Swedish adolescent elevated to saviour of the world, an unruly mob in London making life a misery for its inhabitants alongside lots of platitudes from celebrities jetting in and out of the Capital to put in their tuppence worth. But, moaning about it is easy and doing something effective about it is hard (requiring brain input) and I suspect many of the biggest moaners, the gesticulators, the protesters, indignant scribes and the like are probably no better than a Joe-average such as myself when it comes to carbon footprints, in fact I almost guarantee many are worse, much worse. After all, everything we do, everything we buy, all the food we eat, our travel and living arrangements etc, all impact on the factors that cause climate change. And nothing get on my goat more that celebrities jetting in to the UK to tell us how to put it right before flying back State-side to their mansions in time to squeeze into a little black something for the Oscars that costs more than the average wage.
Fortunately, there are people with functioning brains that do have some of the answers and, surprisingly, many of the answers are distinctly not rocket science. Every week literature is published, some with stark warning and others with constructive suggestions and keeping on top of things is difficult but, in a way, you do not have to. Climate change is real and verifiable for even the most scientifically illiterate, whilst the decline in the environment can be seen all around. I have been sifting through a few of the salient articles that have emerged over the last few months and I thought it was worth sharing some of the more interesting findings over the coming instalments. I will examining different facets of the climate change issue, starting with the basics and then looking into some of the simple things that we can all do to cut our impact on the planet. Some are things that we can do at home, some are things we can support through our democratic voice that determines who represents us in Parliament. But, let’s face it, society as a whole simply has to come to terms with the simple basic fact that we have to stop consuming so much. The peoples of western economies act like caged beasts that can only be placated by their keepers throwing goodies over the fence for them every five minutes: New phones, new clothes, new cars, bigger TVs, package holidays to Magaluf, a digital spy assistant in every room in the house, a speaking fridge and a 5G kettle cum psychiatrist in every kitchen in the land. You get my drift, what will society do if there are not kumquats available in every town from Thurso to Truro? To the Guardian this may be tantamount to the apocalypse but the answer is simple: nothing. Think about not what you want and, instead, what you do not want and the planet will start getting better.
The instalments will be:
- Climate change in a nutshell (for the nuts)
- The biodiversity crisis
- Revolution starts at home
- Agriculture has to do better
- A hurricane of hypocrisy
An average month if you just look at the averages but look at the rainfall pattern. Confined to just two significant days, a whole two weeks when without measurable rain (there was very slight drizzle in the period). This is effectively a drought by UK standards.