3rd November 2008

I was watching the highly-educated Stephen Fry on last-night's English TV. It is an interesting travelogue mini-series, commenting on each of the US States as he drives through. One particular comment he made, though, in Montana wasn't quite right in my eyes. Looking at the glacial waters in front of him, he referred quizzically to the number of detractors of global warming in the world. No-one can deny global warming is happening at the moment, even here in France. Just yesterday torrential rains forced hundreds of families to evacuate their homes in east-central France. Access to the A6, France's main north-south highway, was closed as was the A46 between Lyon and Saint-Etienne to the south. Train services in the area have been cancelled at least until Tuesday.
French regional representatives are trying to get to grips with it all by gathering against climate change in the city of Saint-Malo, in the Atlantic region of France. 'We need to take a stand against climate change', said one representative. But yet again, as with Stephen Fry, their comments grated with me. The point I'm trying to make is that no-one denies that global warming is happening; rather, it is how to deal with it that is important. My own view is that it is caused by a catastrophic natural event in our planet's solar activity, a previous one being the ice-age. So, what we need is world leaders to discuss how we can deal with its destructive effects, both after and before they happen, rather than argue interminably on its cause. Get weather forecasters to predict the worst of the weather in areas that are vulnerable and evacuate people from those areas likely to be flooded, e.g. in constantly devastated regions like Bangladesh. Use computer models to predict which coastal areas are at risk of high waters as a result of glacial melts. Look at coastal erosion around the world and compensate people living near cliff-edges to force them to move further inland. Only build houses safe distances away from such areas.
So, if you're planning to move home, don't even think of buying a house on the coast - particularly if that coast is prone to wild water, or you may find your very own real-estate reduced to just a few worthless grains of sand.