My shameful secret

This morning I have decided to share with you a secret I have hesitated for years to confess. I am afraid it may lead to universal condemnation and banishment... but here goes--the fact is..I quite LIKE global warming. What`s so unpleasant about several degrees of extra warmth, less frost in the Winter, lower fuel bills, no ice on the roads, less snow....all things I can give up without excessive regret! Life is so much more pleasant as the temperature rises, sun-bathing on the beach, cool drinks under a parasol, just lead me to it. The weather here lately has been exceptionally balmy, with temperatures approaching 20 degrees and frankly I`ve been wallowing in it!
  Oh, I know I`m going to be attacked with all sorts of dire predictions. What about the hurricanes, which may become  more common, heavy rain, floods, animal extinctions, changes of landscapes as trees can`t adapt, advance of deserts, etc etc. Well I will admit that there risk to be changes, but what I am trying to say is, they are not necessarily all unpleasant.  The Spanish have a saying `May no new thing arise` new things being of their nature bad...The real problem is that we are all nostalgic and resistant to change, hankering after the good old days and clinging desperately to what we know.
   Well, like it or not, times change and we are going to have to adapt. There are many who believe that the rise in temperature is normal, a progression of the worlds climate away from the last ice-age. or is a cyclic phenomenon, which will right itself in time.  The fashion is, of course, to beat our breasts and say it is all due to human wickedness and selfishness in wanting to keep warm and have modern conditions. This may be true, of course but is also inevitable.  Even if Europe renounced all burning of fossil fuel, the emerging countries like China and India, together with the USA burn 20 times more than us and are highly unlikely to renounce their modernisation even to `save the planet`. Would YOU give up your car to help save the world? Oh, come on be truthful!  I thought not...
  In the end we are going to have to adapt to change, and it may not be so bad with a little flexibility. People living at sea-level are going to have to move to higher ground, it`s not rocket science. Irrigation or resettlement will have to solve the advance of the desert. As for Nature her self, she may be more adaptable than we think. I have read an article recently suggesting that birds adapt rapidly to warmer conditions by delaying or even cancelling their migration. Certain species move north or south as conditions change, even plants change or extend their range, abandoning untenable areas but equally colonising new ones. I saw a Little Egret, or White Heron at Plymouth, for example and can never remember seeing them north of Roscoff. Seagulls now follow the plough where crows used to predominate. We shall have to follow their example or be miserable.As the old saying goes, if you can`t avoid it, lie back and enjoy it!
 
Bye for now, I`m off to sit in the sun!