a bullet for your thoughts ...

This is nicked straight from Glenn Vowles' blog, apposite because the moron he quotes lives just down the road (in Whitchurch, or Lower Hartcliffe as we call it. 'Lower' represents their subhuman IQ).

John from Whitchurch seems to think that the brief spell of recent cold weather we’ve had in the UK is evidence that there is no global warming (‘Global warming? You must be joking’, Open Lines, Feb 12). Questioning of evidence is what science is all about and I’m all in favour of it. John seems not to have applied this principle to the evidence he uses however.

His evidence is only for a very, very short period of weeks and days. He refers to information only from the UK. Climate is about decades of changes not short term weather. Climatic change as now discussed, of which global warming is only one aspect (albeit very important), is a phenomenon which is global and which is tracked over geological time (hundreds, thousands and millions of years).

Has he considered whether the recent weather around the globe fits predictions made by the scientific ‘experts’ he scoffs at? Has he looked at patterns and trends over long periods of time and over large areas of the globe as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have in their independent work for the United Nations?

John very properly asks who these ‘experts’ are and what qualifications they have but this information has been very widely publicised for years now. The IPCC were awarded a Nobel Prize for their work last year! There is no doubt that the United Nations are served by very well qualified scientists as are hundreds of governments and thousands of businesses and scientific institutions all around the globe. They have all assessed the evidence and conclude that climate change is real, very serious and requiring urgent, large scale action! However, its not the fact that they are ‘experts’ that convinces me about climate change – it’s the fact that their central evidence and their expertise has passed continual and rigorous testing. This testing rightly continues to be an essential part of the problem solving process.

Glenn's too understanding and kind. To my mind anyone this stupid needs to be exterminated, as they have no use to us. Their idiotic left wing ideas will have no place in a new world - poor John would not even make it as a slave. Would you want him?

bristol snow

It's been an amazing week, with four big snowfalls hitting Bristol. This morning's was the heaviest with around 6 inches.

Pundits are aleady blaming climate change, and this does seem to fit the pattern. But it's not that different from 1947, 1963, 1979 or 1981 so perhaps there's nothing sinister about it.

But what it does show is how vulnerable we are. Forget comparisons with Switzerland, Finland, New England etc - that's not relevant. Those places get regular cold winters with lots of snow, and it's worth them spending plenty of money on protection. More to the point is how quickly regular activity can come to a halt. Imagine if this was Peak Oil!

But there's been a fun side too. Kids have been off school, adults haven't been able to get to work. Hartcliffe's been even friendlier than usual these last few days. We think we're above (and beyond) nature, but it's clear we're not.

busy and wild weekend

Bristol in the middle of Saturday night's storm


The Fleece on saturday night


Jungi at the zoo on Sunday.

We've had a really busy weekend!

We rejoined the gym on Saturday, then went off to a gig on Saturday night, at the Fleece, a new venue for me. Not a bad location at all with loads of character.

To the zoo on Sunday then, amazingly, to the gym on the way back.

All the activity practically killed me off. We're getting in practice for the summer, when we'll be totally redoing the garden and getting Transition fit!

swiss stuff

The lake and town this morning.


Rhatische Bahn train at St Moritz.


Returning from Davos through a Yuletide landscape.


Ending the evening at the World's largest whisky bar - actually in our hotel.

Who knows what travel in 30 years time will be like? The only things we can be sure of is that there'll be no appreciable civilian air transport and the roads will be all but empty.

Today we woke up to half the lake frozen overnight. We decided to take a shortish train trip up to Davos. The RhB do a magnificent job of providing modern transport in this underpopulated corner of Switzerland.

This evening we walked up to the Xmas market with the temperature 10 degrees below. Layers is the secret! The market was fun, really something for the locals as the season doesn't start until tomorrow. I don't think we've heard an English voice since we arrived.

I like this cosmopolitan lifestyle, the mix of nationalities and languages. We tend to slip in and out of 4 or 5 at random here, everyone seems to know what you're saying. I'll miss this when Peak Oil hits which is why I'm making the most of it now.

norway and forest fires

Norway has a generally wet climate, far wetter than the UK on the western side, but just look at this weather warning map from Meteoalarm Europe. Red is, of course, the highest warning level. The whole of southern Norway is under threat of forest fires. This was a prediction for climate change but again it's surprising to see it happen so fast. Finland was on forest fire alert throughout much of April.