As is customary with the British psyche the main topic of conversation at the moment is the weather. Heavy rainfall on already sodden ground has caused major flooding and many people are enduring damage to their properties for the second time this year. The Environment Agency has said that work on flood defences since 2007 has prevented the damage from affecting large numbers of people but that's little consolation to those who are suffering.
Whilst we can all have sympathy for the flood victims, I am still amazed by the fact that plans will be submitted to build more housing estates on flood plains - that's just asking for trouble. A phrase commonly heard after any major disaster is that "Lessons will be learned" but it doesn't seem that they are learned quickly enough. And how often do you hear "It's the hottest/coldest/wettest/driest since .....whenever" which only goes to prove it has been this ... whatever... previously and yet we still get the same thing happening over and over again. Obviously there are still a lot more lessons to be learned.
It was the northern hemisphere's summer solstice last week which is generally referred to as being the "longest day". This actually means it's the longest day of sunlight whilst south of the equator it's the shortest. Some say that it also marks the start of summer but given that some places in the north of England had the equivalent of a month's rainfall on Friday night and Saturday morning, I don't think there will be many celebrating the new season. Once again communities have come together to help and support each other.
Monday June 25th of course was the midpoint between Christmases and means that the nights will now begin to draw in and we will be closer to Christmas Day 2012 than Christmas Day 2011. Now doesn't that make you feel better? No, I didn't think so - but as we're now officially in summer, we'd better make the most of it. Besides Wimbledon has started and that guarantees good weather doesn't it? I'm sure we had bad summer weather when I was young but I tend to remember only the sunny days.
With temperatures in England reported as being only two degrees warmer the the South Pole, we are also told the globe is still warming.
It appears that "weather" is what we get on a day to day basis but "climate" is what happens over a thirty year period. That would explain the cold winters of 1963 and 1947 then - right! Now while the science is irrefutable it'll take a lot more than that explanation to convince a lot of people. Surely when they started talking about Global Warming that should have been the first thing they said - and have you noticed it's now more likely to be referred to as "Climate Change". Yes the climate has changed - and so has the weather!
Borrowing part of the famous tag line from the film Jaws 2 and following on from yesterday's posting where I said that the snow had all gone, just when you thought it was safe to go out again, the snow returned.
As I write, the snow has settled but it's stopped falling for the present although we could get between two and four inches by tomorrow. Fortunately Ilkeston seems to enjoy a micro-climate all of its own and the worst of the weather generally bypasses the town. Another place that I know of that has a similar micro-climate is Minehead in Somerset. After spending several holidays there I am aware that there can be summer thunderstorms up on Exmoor whilst holidaymakers in the resort town can be basking in sunshine. However we do seem to have had more snow this winter than for a number of years - so much for "Global Warming"! No wonder they changed it to "Climate Change".
When I was in West Hallam in July for the Well Dressing Festival and Scarecrow Trail, there was a figure outside the Old Post Office dressed as Guy Fawkes. Now as Christmas approaches, the figure has had a change of costume and is now standing beneath a small umbrella that offers a little protection against the elements.
I'm not sure whether the umbrella is a subtle comment about global warming but it seems "change" is the operative word - a change of clothes, a change of character and of course climate change. Whilst world leaders gather in Copenhagen to discuss the reduction of harmful emissions and attempt to thrash out an agreement the sad fact remains that whatever your view on the science surrounding the changes in the weather, you can be sure someone will have the opposite opinion.
Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them. - John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801 - 1890)
You'd normally expect to see dust covers on library books but the whole of Ilkeston's Library is covered at present. I'm not sure what's going on under the covers but no doubt all will be revealed in due course. In the meantime, as we've had more than our fair share of wet weather this summer, it looks as though the library has donned waterproofs.
Back in April this year we were warned that there was a 65% chance of a heatwave and we should look forward to a 'barbecue summer'. That 65% chance turned out to be 100% wrong and although there was one hot spell and there have been plenty of fine days, the original forecast was not that good. Later in July it was revised to say that the unsettled weather would continue until the middle of August so we await the next couple of weeks with bated breath. Weather forecasting by its very nature cannot be an exact science but when these short term forecasts for a couple of months ahead are often incorrect, it's no surprise that people are sceptical about the dire warnings of climate change and the impact it will have 40 or 50 years from now. And have you noticed that the term 'global warming' has been dropped in favour of 'climate change'? Of course the climate is changing and the globe is warming - it has been doing since the last ice age! The human race may not be helping the situation and it will take a global change to make a difference and it may take those 40 or 50 years to achieve it. I'm not saying we should ignore the evidence the scientists put before us - but it would be nice if now and again all the prophesies were not so doom-laden.
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation. Kin Hubbard (1868 - 1930)
