I woke up to rain again this morning but somehow managed to find a little window of dry weather to go for a run. I’m still not sure how I did that but I’m rather glad not to have got soaked. The various people I meet when out and about declare themselves heartily sick and tired of all the rain. And yet there are places having it worse than we are. The River Tame might well be running fast and furious and very full through our village but it hasn’t actually burst its banks. We should be thankful, I suppose, for small mercies but we do seem to have had rain, rain and more rain so far in 2023.
California has also had relentless rain since the start of the new year. San Francisco reportedly had 10 inches of rain over ten days, with floods causing six deaths at least. The Sierra Nevada is said to have had twice its usual snowfall for early January. That will be another problem when it melts, of course. And it’s not over yet. More rain and snow is forecast.
Elsewhere they have had unusual warmth, especially in eastern Asia. Parts of China, Japan and Korea are forecast temperatures 10° above the seasonal average, presumably with ensuing related problems. In Europe ski resorts have been bemoaning the lack of snow, some places even opening up the walking routes they usually advertise in summer months. Finally in recent days they’ve had snowfall in the Alps, 20 - 40 centimetres, with the hope of more snow towards the end of this week.
Climate change is affecting us all.
Now, on a Sunday when my daughter and family come to dinner, the two little ones usually have a bath here and go home in their pyjamas so that they can be popped straight into bed when they arrive home. Yesterday evening, with the two small people in the bath, somebody said something about the end of the world. It must have been my daughter or me because it certainly wasn’t one of the small people. The six year old picked up on this and asked anxiously if the world was going to end. Working on the principle of talking sensibly and telling the truth to her children, my daughter replied that yes, the world would end one day, but not for a few million years.
The six year old promptly went into overtired-six-year-old meltdown. Floods of tear were added to the bathwater. Loud wails rent the air. Reassurances that we would all be long gone by then were all to no avail. “What about the people alive then? And what about my Bambi (her favourite soft toy)?” Reassurances of scientists having found a way to fly survivors off to an alternative planet didn’t work either. “I don’t want this planet to end. I love this planet.” So do we all, we tried to reassure her, to almost no avail.
It took some time to calm it all down. Meanwhile the small boy had shampoo in his eyes and was adding a different kind of wail to the chaos.
Earlier, over dinner, the six year old had been telling us about the need to recycle and to use things sensibly. Her small brother had nodded wisely and told us she was right. My daughter was laughingly proud of the two little climate activists she seemed to be raising. And then we had the bathtime crisis!
Meanwhile the British Heart Foundation has been getting some stick about a charity draw for a £3m London townhouse, with a fire pit on the garden terrace and open fires in the property. Apparently a promotional video shows wood being burned in the metal fire pit at the property in north London and an open fire next to a bath. “Take a soak in your sumptuous stone tub and relax to the crackling sounds of the roaring fireplace,” says the promotion.
Oh dear! They should have known better. The British Heart Foundation has, after all, been at the forefront of the campaign to highlight the risk of open fires. And new data published last year found wood burning in homes produces more small particle pollution than all road traffic in the UK.
I suspect that two elements of the organisation were not communicating well.
Wood burning stoves have been all the rage in recent years. I noticed just this morning that a whole huge section of our local post office window is stacked high with packs of logs on sale. We too have been guilty of wood-burning on an open fire in our house in the past, as well as smokeless coal, until it all just got too messy and we had problems in the spring and summer with birds falling down the chimney into the fireplace. We replaced it all some years ago with a clever electric fire that has an artificial glowing coals section complete with flicker-effect. With the prospect of power cuts this winter, however, I confess to having considered rooting out the old fireplace grate from the shed in case of need. And now I feel guilty about such thoughts.
And even environmentally conscious George Monbiot has been confessing to his guilty purchasing of wood-burning stoves for his home. Granted, it was back in 2008 when he installed them and technology has moved on since then but even so … Hindsight is a wonderful thing!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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