An Inconvenient Holiday

I just saw the movie http://www.climatecrisis.net/ in the comfort of my own flourescently lit home and will be passing along the DVD to someone with a bigger house than the apartment I live in (perhaps I should feel proud, except for the population density aspect of it!). I was thinking that this is going to be a big holiday gift/viewing time.

I was just pondering the truth of the movie in my experience over the last 15 years. The summer's were really hot when I was a child in Missouri, but England never was. I went to England in July every four years growing up. I was always cold and sometimes had to buy warmer jackets, clothes or shoes during the summer time visits. The country had a comedy program called something like Rising Damp, and that's what it was, COLD rising damp, all summer long, except on those rare occasions several random mid summer days (or day during my visit, if I was lucky) when the sun would come out for a few minutes at noon. I once went windsailing on a beautiful summer day in a full rubber suit, and I was still cold.

My cousin got married in July last summer and we spent every day in the sweltering heat, rain or no rain. That is a STARK contrast to my experiences as a child and teenager. The heatwave was unheard of for my 69 year-old English mother who was suffering incredibly, like she does here when its hot--but England doesn't normally have air-conditioning--especially in lovely seaside hotels that rent out their entire business to wedding parties. So it was exhausting and the cheerful alcoholics were much less so, and my 1 year-old child has always slept swaddled or in pajamas with feet--but he slept in England in a diaper! That was seriously strange for me--England was always a place where I needed MORE clothes. I was amazed and thankful that he slept at all, considering his SoCal little body has hardly experienced any night out of the range of 68 - 74 degrees F.

I also thought about the Mississippi flood that devastated my best friend's wedding in 1992.

Al Gore's got a point--and I couldn't be more concerned about Iceland and the Arctic. Don't melt, please! We have to start freezing them, help!