13th January 2019

13th today. Unlucky for some.  In the US, huge snowstorms head for Washington DC. Tomorrow, Australia will bake through a heatwave,  the soaring temperatures predicted to last for 4 days. Multiple days in a row of 40C plus are unusual there. In the UK, a land notorious for grey, damp, moderate weather, last summer was unusual in that we enjoyed continuous blue skies and hot weather for weeks on end. Elsewhere last year saw a plethora of eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and massive flooding. Global climate change? Undoubtedly.  Man-made? The jury’s out. A similar global warming period has happened several times before, one such in 950 AD. Scientists gave the causes of that one as increased solar activity and changes to ocean circulation. Clearly not man-made then nor, in my view, is today’s!  Time for the world to stop discussing carbon emissions and to actively tackle the effects of climate change. Move people off tiny, flat islands and inland to high ground, away from coasts, fault lines and volcanos. Fact, not superstition.