Thursday 12th January

What with the financial crisis, the credit crunch and now the sovereign debt crisis, I don’t suppose anyone has any time for the whole global warming issue.  Too busy trying to prop up the whole edifice which got us here in the first place.  But of course it hasn’t gone away at all.  Just because no-one is talking about it, doesn’t mean that it isn’t still the greatest problem facing mankind.  A few years ago it was all over the papers and the television, and I can remember the sense of relief when Kyoto was signed up to by, well nearly everyone; and it only seemed a matter of time before even the Americans would wake up and smell the methane.  And now it all seems to be unraveling, all the major polluting countries are refusing to play ball; if they stick their heads any further in the sand they won’t even get their bottoms sun-burnt.  And every now and then another piece of devastating evidence slides into view and the world just collectively shrugs its shoulders and tries to think even more short-term.   Last year they managed to circumnavigate the North Pole itself, the famous North West and North East Passages finally discovered – and no-one cares.

And of late, most people I find are becoming quite skeptical about the whole argument, just as almost the whole of the scientific community is finally agreed that it is happening and even faster than first thought, it is as if it is all just so much hot air, which it is.

And I wonder if this so mild winter has got anything to do with global warming too.  I cannot remember such a warm start to the year, and add to that the hot October, and the mild November and December and it really seems as if we have had no winter at all.  There is still time yet but somehow I suspect it won’t really happen at all this year.  And will that bother anyone?  Will anyone, except the tiny ski resort industry in Scotland really care?

The real fear I have is that we will be leaving it all until it is too late, and it will take some real disaster and great loss of life before anything changes.  Oh well, happy days (till then).