The Winds of Change
A little spider (Gasteracantha Cranciformis to give it its proper recognition) has been spotted in the garden of an old friend of mine, David Drury of
Nevertheless this determined insect, although common in
Climate warming in
Animals are far cleverer than we, humans, are. There we are grasping at some idiotic ideas to cut our “carbon footprints” from the face of this planet. What does this imbecile expression mean? Einstein once said that two things are infinite: the universe and man’s stupidity. And he was not too sure about the universe.
A few years ago New-Zealand was blamed for their cattle contributing too much to the amount of methane released in the atmosphere. Ever tried to stop a cow farting? Vegetarians, vegans and anybody else eating a lot of vegetables will know that emissions from the rear end are the penalty of being righteous. Even the ladylike cushion creepers exuded discreetly by the ladies of certain social position whilst sitting on brocade sofas can be lethal. All it needs is a slight shift in the skirt and the assembled company plus the atmosphere gets a bit.
Try to wipe your carbon footprint off this one and see what it will do to your insides.
The dinosaurs must have contributed tons of the stuff to the atmosphere. Imagine all those huge monsters digesting their dinner, collapsing in a corner and releasing their vast intestines of whatever gas they had in store. May be that is why they disappeared: hauled out by their own petard. But the earth kept going round. Animals came from the sea and grew legs. New vegetation appeared attracting mutant creatures. Polar bears of today are very partial to the blueberry bushes that have appeared in the warmer tundra of the
In the meantime, back at the ranch of 21st century, 32.000 scientists world wide have recently signed a petition to reject the notion that greenhouse emissions will cause catastrophic heating of the planet. There is, they say, no scientific indication that humans have got any impact on the natural cycle of the planet. Those guys are not jokers and as opposed to most politicians know what they are talking about.
It is a living planet and as such will go through its natural cycles, as it did before. Whether you like it or not.
In 2003, 3000 automated buoys were deployed in the world oceans. At
How is that for technology? I sometimes can’t switch my laptop on…
Back to the
Not enough to boil the kettle it seems.
I am getting tired of being slammed in the face by people who are not scientists, do not know what they are talking about, accusing me of leaving carbon footprints all over the place. Just because, like Charlie and Al Gore, they have easy media exposure.
In my days the only foot prints to worry about were when my grandmother had just finished washing the kitchen floor and it was still wet with the sudsy water from the Monday clothes washing session. She had just made a casserole with the Sunday left-overs and was sitting peacefully in her chair having a well-deserved rest. We, children, tried to remember what the day was but very often it did not work, especially during the long summer holidays when everything blurred into a never ending adventure in the cliffs. The smell of the casserole should have warned us: left over of any meat from the Sunday lunch cut up in small pieces, a few carrots in slices, a couple of onions roughly chopped, whatever vegetable was hanging out in the larder, a few peeled potatoes, plenty of cider, herbs and a small glass of homebrewed Calvados. Try it. Brandy can be substituted for the Calvados. Cider from the is found on any supermarket shelf.
But no, we always forgot and left our muddy footprints on the shiny floor. Then we felt a sharp slap on our backsides with the handle of the mop. In those days mops were made of sturdy wood and any shredded discarded garments. They carried some weight. We mopped again. Twice. It had to be rinsed. Whilst the floor dried we were banned to the outside, whatever the weather. My cousin and I had designed a way of distilling rotten apples into something deadly and delicious. Our distillery was in a remote part of a never used ancient outbuilding. We had two lovely chipped cups in there and the old contraption going most of the time. Being locked out of a shiny floor did not bother us one bit. Spiders were everywhere and some bugs had made their home in every corner. Rats were in residence at all time and we gave them names.
We must have left a few carbon footprints on the landscape. But the planet kept turning, the rats died from time to time probably of cirrhosis of the liver. We survived and so will generations to come if they live craftily and switch off the TV to keep the scaremongers like Al Gore and Charlie out of their eyes and ears.
Like the little spider in David’s garden in
Jocelyne
