Weather, we like it or not

We British do tend to be a bit obsessed with the weather. We talk about it a lot, it’s either too hot or too cold. Too dry causing a bloody drought or raining persistently. Whether we like it or not, we can’t control the weather. With the rain we have had this summer; I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that some mad scientist hadn’t been having a go at weather control.  He probably got a grant to try to  make it rain in Manchester, but not in London. It seems to have gone wrong…

It was bloody cold the other night, down to 6C. That’s not much warmer than the inside of my fridge. By a strange coincidence, my friend in California said it was freezing there the next day, it wasn’t that cold, but it was down to about 6 or 7C. Meanwhile, in Wuhan City in China, the air conditioners were working overtime. The reason it went so cold here was it had rained all day. The rain of course is cold and so cooled everything down, the rain then evaporates off cooling things even more. This is offset by the clouds holding much of the heat in, but overnight the sky cleared and so it went cold.

Some gasses also hold the heat in, not as much as cloud, but they do hold the heat in. The carbon dioxide comes from animals, including us humans, breathing and from anything that burns. Car and aircraft engines put a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, so do coal, gas and oil fired power stations. This has led to the earth warming up, only by a degree or two, but that’s enough to be worrying.

You know how to thaw a leg of chicken slowly? You put it in the fridge, it’s still cold but the chicken thaws. The same principle applies to global warming, the polar ice caps are still cold, but because they are a little warmer they have been slowly thawing and pumping lots of fresh water into the sea.

The climate has changed and because it’s a fairly new phenomenon it’s hard to predict. Some scientists thought that Britain would become warm enough to grow grapes! We wish! The weather has become more unpredictable. Nature has tried to adjust, water will evaporate and cool the earth more as it gets warmer. It can only adjust so much though and now it seems to be overwhelmed. Some people are blaming cows farting, but lets face it all animals do that. We can’t just pin the blame on poor cows, what are we to do. Mass murder cows? Shall we built concentration camps and gas chambers for cows?

We could cut down on energy consumption, drive cars less, fly less and use less energy generally. We could insulate our homes so they use less energy. Take better, but fewer overseas holidays. Maybe, get less hysterical about major international sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympics? Sorry, am I touching a few raw nerves? Give up holidays and sport, that would leave nothing left for many people. They would all have to find something else to do. They could read 50 Shades of Grey, I’m told there are some tips on things to do, in that book.

I think I might have to put petrol in my car today. I won’t be going far, I don’t want to contribute too much to climate change; I need the planet to last a few more years. I do need to get out though and I don’t do many miles and certainly don’t do long haul flights. We just need people to be sensible about climate change and give nature a chance to adjust. Nature also needs a helping hand, so we could stop destroying rain forests and drive smaller cars rather than gas guzzlers. Make things to last rather than have everything as semi-disposable. There will be a new Iphone out soon, they tend to bring a new one out every year and the old version can’t really be sold to help pay for the new one. They need to be made better to last longer and the development of new models needs to be more thorough. Manufactured goods should have a long warranty on them by law too, to discourage the manufacture and import of crap.

There are more amazing blogs on the home page. I wonder if we could make grass easier to digest. I’m really concerned about those cows now…