There were many times during recent summer months, as the wind blew and the rain fell, that I thanked my great good luck to live on this island, faced towards 4,800km of rough Atlantic, while Europe incinerated.
I have never been one for lying on a beach. All that sand, reaching places nothing else can, and the utter boredom of just lying there almost naked. Nakedness deserves better. This month I am reminded of those farmers of old who visited the seaside every September when the turf was home and the hay saved. They sat there, sleeves rolled to the elbows and trousers hitched to the ankles, arms and ankles open to the sea and to the sky.
How the world laughed, walking by bare skinned. Not any more.
We in northern Europe should get on our knees and thank the great god Geography for our location as climate change takes revenge on a feckless humanity for careless disregard of this precious planet. Here in Ireland we should greet every gust of wind with pleasure – it gives us electricity – and the rain, which provides growth and greenery. We might also remember the wisdom of our Scandinavian neighbours who say there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.
RM Block
There is no doubt that humanity-induced climate change is the greatest challenge that our species has ever faced. Its implications are enormous, not least for those of us in these cooler climes which can expect a great movement of population from the south, as people find it impossible to live with rising temperatures and other extremes of weather.
Yes, it is imperative that international measures are taken to bring down the world’s temperatures. But I wonder whether our contribution to that will amount to less than a hills of beans while enormous economies like China, India, Indonesia, the US, Brazil, continue to spew out carbon in such enormous amounts.
Meanwhile here in Ireland we flagellate ourselves over belching cows and new motorways – which will also be needed for electric cars anyhow. Yes, we must do our bit but, unlike our neighbours, we never had an industrial revolution or a significant coal mining industry. Our contribution, historically, to the current crisis was minimal. Our contribution to its solution should be proportionate to that history.
Flagellate, from Latin flagellatus, “to whip, scourge”.
