Weather!

I knew there was a reason I stayed at home!!

~ all the transatlantic flights cut over our little bit of Wales~ is that why it's so wet!

It was ruddy wet when I lived in S. Wales Arlene. Nothing's changed - and there weren't many jets around in those days! :o))

Scary .. why when they keep warning us about global warning do they still plan on putting more aircraft up .. ???

good point Amy I think that they want another runway at heathrow!!!

It's all about the money ! they charge extra for everything and blame it on global warning ..
I remember once reading a long time ago that a Volcano puts more pollution out in an hour than we could hope to do in a lifetime ... and theres nothing new about them !

Hmmm....I think all the talk about global warming is all hot air (pardon the pun!) next year when we fly to America I`ll ask the pilot to avoid Wales Arlene...lol! ;o)))

Sandra x

~Welll I have been here for 35 years and have seen nothing like the weather we have had over the last three!plus we never got as much wind as we do now!

~ trouble is that if it is true and we sit on our hands our kids will live to regret it!
Ultimately, it comes down to the basics. As the Telegraph’s Geoffrey Lean explains quite simply in his latest column, “since the Industrial Revolution, humanity has dug, squeezed and pumped half a trillion tons of carbon in coal, gas and oil from beneath the surface of the Earth, burnt it, and released it as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is inconceivable that this would not increase the warming effect and, indeed, it has done so.” Lean continues: “Despite all the lurid claims that a handful of present-day scientists have contrived to hoax the world and all its governments this basic science has not been successfully challenged in nearly 200 years.”

Good point Amy. I do not doubt that we are contributing to global warming but I do feel that there's a measure of bandwagon jumping going on to make us feel worse. They'll be telling me to change my socks twice a day soon!

I dont beleive in Global Warming!!! I think the World/Earth has always changed as thats what its done from the Begining ??All the Earths Land has moved & theres proof of Underwater Citys 2 !!! No 1 can predict the Planets Future:(

I'm with you Jacque.

Its all talk nothing gets done! why not limit flying to I holiday and 4 business flights per year per person? Turn all services to residential home off for on day a week ? No votes in it, so wont happen.

~ the trouble with that argument is that basically you are saying the planet will change regardless of anything man does and that there is nothing at all we can do about it!Drought,Hurricanes. flloodng etc!Survival of the fittest!
Will the last one off the planet please turn off the lights!

I'm incline to think like you Jacque

Sadly i believe thats the Earths/Natures way Arlene :(

Yes Arlene I am saying that its the not in my back garden syndrome? I do think man will destroy the planet I also think it will happen with in the next 100-150 years. Man is the most selfish of all the animals.

I prefer to believe we can and should do as much as we can to mitigate and slow up what is happening ~ and yes I agree Man is the problem!~

I don't think it is solely man's fault. Weather goes in cycles but I agree, Arlene, that we should all do what we can to reduce the pollution that we are creating, which undoubtedly does not help. For my part (I have applied for my halo!) all our light bulbs are low-energy, nothing is on stand-by any more, I recycle everything possible and I've bought an electric bike instead of a second car. Damned cold in this weather though. I will also adopt any other sensible ideas. We ARE the most selfish of all creatures Derek but has that not always been the case?

The question I'd like to ask is - how many leaders are flying to Copenhagen to discuss climate change? Are any of them sharing a plane?

Never mind the leaders Andrew - how many, totally uneccessary "assistants" and security people will be in their entourage, most of whom are there just for the jolly? Obama will probably have half a dozen plane-loads!

I agree that we should all do our bit to help in any way we can but our country is so tiny compared to some of the bigger countries that don't bother ...it won't work unless the world pulls together .....

The weather has always gone round in cycles and always will do even the Sahara Desert was fertile once .. before our time .......

~ i think the problem is that world population has grown so quickly and our consumption of food water and power because of our totally mechanised lifestyle is having a disproportionate effect on the planet now~ and the poorest are the ones who are suffering the most.
In mitigation of a face to face conference I think that is the only way to make sure that everyone gets involved~ so easy to hide behind a phone~ but I agree that the whole circus should have been pared down to the minimum~
We all have to do our bit and persuade everyone else by example to do so too!
If the US China and India commit to meaningful targets and try to achieve them it should make a real difference!

Did you see the TV piece about the Tuareg, Amy? The Sahara is now getting so hot that there is insufficient water for the camels on the traditional salt supply route from Timbuktu. They are being replaced by trucks.

after 9/11 a scientist in NY noticed how blue the sky was without planes flying. he set about collecting data from the last 30 yrs and found that there is a phenomenon called 'Global dimming' this also helps cool the earth.

the changes in the environment are much more complex that just CO2 emmissions. But it is a start.

Certainly accept the burning of fossil fuels must have a polluting effect Arlene.

Technolgy exists to use hydrogen to fuel cars and only water vapour produced from exhaust - would that lead to more clouds though ? - engines themselves have few moving parts so you can see the car and oil industry slow to embrace this.

Supply of hydrogen limitless and always being replinished hydrogen cars can already be filled with it at special filling stations and no loss of performance or recharge like electric vehicles.

This within time could surely be adapted to aircraft.I must admit to being confused by so much eco information then see rainforests stripped when being told these the lungs of our planet.

It seems we only ever likely to save the planet if theres a profit to be made from it.Think many of us being sold the line we need to pay green taxs with little evdence that this income being used to seriously tackle the issue.

trouble is hydrogen is potentially very dangerous.
and the electric cars that are meant to be good still rely on electricity from normal power stations.
On the news tonight they were saying about farming less animals for food. my 12 yr old then asked 'if we have less cows what will the vegetarians and us do for milk and cheesy things?' good question said I : dont know pet.

~~ we need to stop the rainforests being torn down asap but you will then have to provide the population with an income and a lifestyle~not animal husbandry but some sort of vegetatable crop to provide food in the prevailing conditions! This I think is one of Kew's new aims.
There was an item on Countryfile about smaller cows which provide as much meat but use less feed and produce less methane~that's a start!

Petrol pretty lethal too Sbg .. and look at how it has to be produced and refined .

but they remove the forrests to grow crops for their own families. we are one of a few species that breeds without thinking of how we will provide for the offspring. then to confound it we do everything in our power to keep all alive/well. we really have messed with nature. and no i am not advocating euthanasia, just poining out the fact that the hman population is growing at an alarming rate. I am greatful for medicine as i would have died many times over now.

i agree bb but hydrogen is much more explosive than petrol. ref back to the airship hindenberg in the 1920's or was it the 30's. how do they separate the hydrogen? its usually by electrolysis, back to elecricity again.

` from what I was reading they are cutting down Rainforest to provide cattle grazing for cheap beef for the developed world~ and yes population control is part of the answer ~

Honda are trialing their hydrogen car in California but it is a production model.

Would sincerely hope that technology and safety have come a long way since those airships Sbg ..if the same principle applies then agree wouldnt get in one either .

Yes Arlene and sure I read somewhere that it is fairly cheap to purchase acres of rainforest. Why arent they world heritage sites in the truest sense ?

~ agree BB!

~alright folks~ have a look at my latest blog~this is what we can do!~ this is a bit of fun with a serious side~ please make comments that won't cause offence!

I think it's a bit of both! The earth has always changed in cycles and will go on doing, but man IS responsible for conserving resources and protecting what we have for future generations.

Thanks Mp what I was trying to say but not so clearly ..x

Lol! You mean I made some sense for once! Tell my lecturer, quick!!

Love to Mp but probably ask me what research I had done to back up my theory .. then accuse me of being anecdotal lol

Nah, she probably wouldnt have command of such language!
She gave me a blank look when she mentioned some research in a lecture, & I asked if it was empirical or even replicable!

OMG bet she loves you .lol

Aye!! I also pulled her up about us not getting the guidelines for our essay til last night! It was due in today! :~((

about tis conference it said on the news that it will produce more carbon because of the people going -- if you count all the assistants-journalists and hangers-on its more than a small third world country!-- how can it help? think of all the "Hot Air".....

Arlene - I read your blog and in particular the comments arising. All I can clearly contribute to this debate is that from what I have read the overwhelming preponderance of International Scientific opinion, the UK Governmement and the UK Metereological Office share your concerns on the issue of global warming. So do I.

I have just done a blog this morning...about the very cold temps here and the 100 year cycles that we seem to go through...BUT ..and this is a very big..BUT..I do believe we are a part of nature, and we are. We are not separate as so many would like to THINK we are and as such WE need to take the reins of mankind and rein ourselves in. WHOA get real and be kind and humble for once to what the earth offers. I have an old friend who insisted years ago that the airplanes were changing the weather and railed against them in the sky every time he saw a vapor trail..now whether that will change the earth dramatically? Maybe..
I have lived next to and experienced the force of Mt. St. Helens when it blew....the cloud that it put out caused more weather effect than hundreds of years of vapor trails could ever do.
To think of the force of Mother Earth pales in comparison to mankind..we are simply infintesimal in comparison. BUT we do cause problems with nature..we are spoiled and greedy, so we cut down the rainforests for profit..we cut down the woodlands here in the U.S. for profit. We do not appreciate we only take. It is wrong.
Whether the earth grows warm or freezes again and Glaciers form all over the earth. That may be the cycle that Mother needs to go through as everything needs a time of dormancy.
BUT that does not make us less greedy or stupid for what we do to Mother Earth and ourselves...we breath air that is toxic..we create cancer with our toxins that kill us..before Mother Earth has had enough of us we will kill ourselves off...We MUST do better..WE MUST clean up our own backyards and stop being so GREEDY. Mother Earth is a beautiful and powerful living force in herself...Appreciate her, Be humble, Be gracious, Be kind and never take her for granted..and how would we like to be treated? THINK about it...

Well put, Cat! :~)) We DO need to start giving something back!