Climate
science
is
a
sophisticated
business,
so
it
is a sitting target
for sceptics and climate
change
deniers.
But
you don’t need computer
modelling
to
sense
that
something is not right with nature.
Southern species are moving northwards.
I picked up two ticks this year walking in
the north of Scotland. You can now find
hummingbird hawk moths
in Derbyshire.
And if you want to climb down to the Mer
de Glace, a mighty glacier near Mont Blanc,
you must abseil 300 feet further than when
I first did that descent in 1974; the glacier is
shrinking!
‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’ (Who guards the guardians?) is the question the Roman poet Juvenal asked, at just about the same time as the New Testament church was rapidly expanding.
It’s not often that Latin phrases come to mind (mainly because I know so few), but this one seems entirely appropriate for the increasing tendency we are seeing in our major internet platform providers to decide that they, and they alone, are the arbiters of truth.
Even before lockdown the listener figures for BBC Radio 3 were going up. In February 2020 they were up to 2.13 million compared with 1.83 million the previous year. One suspects that the privations of the pandemic will have driven them up even more.
One reason might be that Radio 3 has revamped itself somewhat.
COP 26 and the Great Commission
Climate science is a sophisticated business, so it is a sitting target for sceptics and climate change deniers. But you don’t need computer modelling to sense that something is not right with nature.
Southern species are moving northwards. I picked up two ticks this year walking in the north of Scotland. You can now find hummingbird hawk moths in Derbyshire. And if you want to climb down to the Mer de Glace, a mighty glacier near Mont Blanc, you must abseil 300 feet further than when I first did that descent in 1974; the glacier is shrinking!