A bit of a rant about climate change and its effects around the world.

 When I went out for a run earlier this morning, it actually felt quite warm, almost like June. This was largely because the cloud cover had thinned somewhat and the sun was actually shining on us … briefly. I was almost persuaded that summer was beginning again; we’ve had a few false starts when it has seemed reasonable to wear summer, or summer-ish, clothes. It didn’t last long today though. The cloud moved back in and the temperatures plummeted once again.

Meanwhile, with temperatures hitting 40+° in Athens, the acropolis has been closed to tourists. That’s a crazy temperature. The heatwave has arrived earlier than usual. Builders are starting work at 6.00am so that they can do a few hours work before outdoor work becomes intolerable, not to say dangerous. People manning street-food stalls don’t have that luxury; there are still tourists out and about wanting to buy food on the go. I find myself marvelling, however, that anyone can be out and about voluntarily in such heat. Imagine going on holiday, looking forward to a bit of site-seeing, a bit of culture, only to find that all you really want to do is sit in the shade and pant and sip cool drinks. 

And of course the lovely, cool places with air-conditioning are actually just contributing to the problem. 

In some parts of Spain, such as the province of Murcia and the Balearic Islands they have had unbelievable floods. 

Across the ocean, in Brazil they have also had floods, affecting the poorest people more severely, according to this article. In Porto Alegre, the capital of Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul,  ecause of gentrification poorer, mostly black people have been forced into districts more vulnerable to flooding. They are used to flooding there but this year has been exceptional: 

“In 1941, the floods lasted 22 days and inundated 15,000 homes in Porto Alegre. The city’s main river, the Guaíba, swelled to 4.76 meters deep.

That used to be the benchmark for extreme flooding, but this May, all records were broken. More than 300,000 homes were flooded in Porto Alegre alone and the Guaíba reached 5.35 meters on 5 May.

Another recent study showed that human burning of fossil fuels and trees made floods at least twice as likely, while infrastructure failures worsened the damage.

More than 420,000 people are still displaced and 16,000 are living in shelters.”

It may be a natural phenomenon but human action - “burning fossil fuels and trees” - has exacerbated it. 

It’s happening everywhere. We’ve broken the planet!

In Switzerland the KlimaSeniorinnen – or Swiss female climate elders – a group of women over 65, 2,400 of them, took the Swiss government to court for failing to do its fair share to stop the planet heating 1.5C (2.7F). Wow! And now the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Switzerland violated the human rights of older women through weak climate policies that leave them more vulnerable to heatwaves. 

Quite why women are more vulnerable than men remains a mystery, a mystery to me anyway. 

The Swiss parliament’s lower house voted on Wednesday to disregard the ruling – with 111 votes in favour and 72 against – arguing that the judges had overstepped their bounds and that their country had done enough. 

And the women are being criticised by the rightwing for being selfish. Jean-Luc Addor, from the rightwing populist Swiss People’s Party, the largest in the federal assembly, said: “These ‘climate elder’ are just a bunch of apparently healthy “boomeuses” [female boomers], who are trying to deny our children the living conditions they have enjoyed all their lives.”

But maybe a precedent has been set and other “elders” will follow suit. Those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s believed that we could make the world a better place for everyone. We need to keep on trying before it’s too late.

Okay. That’s another little rant over,

Life goes on, stay safe and well, everyone!