Today my weather app offers me “sunny intervals and a moderate breeze”. So far the sunny interval has lasted all morning and the moderate breeze is blowing the trees and bushes around quite a bit. That should dry the towels I put in the washing machine earlier and hung out in the garden, the towels my daughter left behind after the children played in the paddling pool during yesterday afternoon. The paddling pool was left behind as well.
Yesterday’s weather forecast changed as the day progressed. We began with mostly cloudy and a strong chance of rain, maybe even thundery rain at about 4.00pm. The sun came out, the temperature rose and the threat of thundery rain retreated into the evening.
My daughter arrived with the small people, complete with paddling pool and swim suits. They had thought they were booked in for swimming lessons earlier in the afternoon but there was a mix-up with the booking and the swimming lessons don’t start until next week. To make up for the disappointment they brought the paddling pool so that they could get wet in our garden instead. We sat in the garden and drank coffee while the children splashed about.
It was so fine and warm that we kept putting off eating as late as possible. Eventually everyone moved inside. We noticed the dark clouds moving in and brought all the garden stuff indoors as well. But the rain and storm held off until the children were in the bath, washing off the garden stuff before going home to bed. At that point the thunder and lightning started, followed by torrential rain. More like a late summer storm than a spring storm.
Presumably this is part of the climate change crisis, which we are not talking about much at the moment. We have other crises on our minds just at present. But we mustn’t forget about global warming and the odd effects on our weather.
I hear that the pope is urging everyone to have more children. (Italy is one of the countries with the lowest birthrates at the moment.) Environmental scientists disagree with him. “I had the hormonal urges,” said Prof Camille Parmesan, a leading climate scientist based in France. “Oh my gosh, it was very strong. But it was: ‘Do I really want to bring a child into this world that we’re creating?’ Even 30 years ago, it was very clear the world was going to hell in a handbasket. I’m 62 now and I’m actually really glad I did not have children.”
Parmesan is not alone. An exclusive Guardian survey has found that almost a fifth of the female climate experts who responded have chosen to have no children, or fewer children, due to the environmental crises afflicting the world.
Here’s a link to the article that quotation comes from.
Add to the environmental problems the matter of war going on here and there and it’s understandable that people are reluctant to bring more children into world. But still we have crazy people like American Senator Lyndsey Graham advocating using nuclear bombs to end the conflict in Gaza. After all, the USA did it in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He seems unaware that we now know a lot more about the side effects of using nuclear bombs! There are crazy people running countries!
Meanwhile, as we have been gazing at the sky in search of celestial displays, here’s cartoon which says quote a lot. Nicola Jennings on looking up at the night sky in Britain, Ukraine and Gaza – cartoon:
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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