There were in fact two balloons soaring through the pellucid blue sky over Hornington church the other day, but I could only photograph the one. They were taking advantage of the still air and the 20-degree temperatures. There was a day this week when everyone I met greeted me with some variant on the phrase 'Isn't the weather lovely!' and I felt like replying with something along the lines, 'Well, sort of, but it's also very probably a harbinger of the global climatic catastrophe which will cause the destruction of all we currently hold dear.' I didn't say that at all, although I did get into a conversation bordering on such a reflection with the waitress in one of the cafés, and even referred to it in the odd homily.
Most of my friends are mainly disgustingly liberal and metropolitan souls, and so it was no surprise to find their reactions to the warmest UK February weather on record fell into the same conflicted combination of enjoyment and anxiety; west Surrey is quite liberal too but I was more surprised to find similar sentiments here from young and old alike. The weather has of course turned grey and damp again, but nobody seems fooled any longer by quotidian meteorological fluctuations, and nobody dares to say 'Where's all this global warming, then, eh?' In fact I think there has been a shift in thinking relatively recently, driven by the successive shocks of scientific reports and records breaking. Whether it can translate into the kind of action which will have any sort of ameliorative effect I don't know. I suppose I should lie down in the middle of the main road in Swanvale Halt with a placard saying 'Down with this sort of thing', and a picture of the sun crossed out.
6th year in a row that UK CO2 emissions have fallen, I think. We have pretty much got rid of coal from electricity production now - and almost half our electricity comes from renewables. So I would say that government at least has done some pretty big things. The fall in the price of solar has been amazing - pretty much in line with Moore's law, so solar is likely to achieve great things in sunnier countries. And battery tech is beginning to make electric cars viable for the many, and not just as second cars, or for the well-organised. Ranges of 250 miles between charges are now common in broadly mainstream priced cars. The new Golf, due in the next year, may be the last petrol/diesel that VW sell, replaced by the all electric ID for the next gen.
ReplyDeleteThat's helpful and hopeful to remember amid all the very disturbing environmental science, although I suspect too late to avoid severe disruption to the way our current societies function; the die was probably cast that way long before human beings even realised there was a problem.
ReplyDeleteComing back to this, this site (https://smarterbusiness.co.uk/uk-renewable-energy-percentage-2018/) suggests the proportion of UK energy coming from renewables is 33% - which is excellent though it's not nearly half. Where does that figure come from?
ReplyDelete