Being a “bit over twenty one” I vividly remember the winter of early 1963, when we were living in Derby. Snow fell on Boxing Day and some of it was still on the ground in March! From memory every day was bright sunshine, in a cloudless sky, yet temperatures never rose above zero.
In 1963 the railways were in a period of transition, being midway between steam engines and diesel locomotives. In sub zero conditions the former suffered from permanently frozen water towers and troughs while the latter suffered from frozen fuel. And then, collectively, all suffered from frozen points. Needless to say travelling was a nightmare and the papers were full of horror stories.
Fast forward forty six years and travellers have now faced horrendous disruption when trying to use the cross channel rail link. Can one really be expected to understand why, with the technology to explore deep space, our engineers are still unable to design a railway system capable of surviving a swing in temperature of a few extra degrees! And this is at the time when the nation is spending more than ever on education, and getting folks into university. There are times when I lose the plot.
Talking of losing the plot, what about Copenhagen? How can anyone set out “to square the circle” when thousands of people congregate in one place, spend millions of pounds to do so and expound more hot air than umpteen coal fired power station to discuss the issue of global warming that to many, me included, is not an issue anyway? And, while this Danish “circus” was under way, temperatures over Northern Europe plummeted and many countries were covered in snow. What price global warming and, by adding these temperatures, to those of the last few years how does the ten year average pan out then I wonder?
To my mind the issue of supposed global warming is just a blind for extra tax collecting. Taking a dispassionate view history books, and even my World Atlas, show how most of the Northern hemisphere was covered in ice, thousands of years ago, and that the Sahara desert was once covered in grass! Given that these are unassailable facts, the ice melted and the grass became sand without any help, or hindrance, from mankind what so ever. Proof, if it were needed that global temperature rises and falls are all part of a natural and ongoing cycle. These cycles started long before man arrived on the planet, and they will go on long after we have gone!
Before the 1963 “big freeze” the prophets of doom had set out to foretell that the world would be decimated by the round of nuclear testing that took place in the fifties. The sun would be blotted out and the world would be knocked of its axis, being two of the popular myths put about by the ill informed. Nobody told the atmosphere, it just got on with its job, remaining intact and unharmed.
Yet, perhaps the saddest outcome of the current situation is the amount of air time and publicity given to people wishing to support what, to me is at best a very tenuous thread. Yet, without doubt officialdom will welcome the arrival of this multi national league of cheerleaders. What an unexpected bonus for Government to be gifted with a noisy, unpaid, well organised and well publicised army of storm troopers to support their latest ploy to extract yet more taxes from an already over burdened nation.
Wishing all readers a Happy Christmas and a Successful New Year.
