Today it is snowing here in Stratford-upon-Avon - not a lot, but more is
promised - and having returned from a winter holiday in Kerala, S. India
(with lots of beekeeping) on 6 February, I am thinking that I should have
stayed another month!

Bill asks:
outside is snow and 6F. Where is global warming when you need it?

Well, as I understand it, global warming will lead (or is leading?) to more
unpredictable weather patterns.  Certainly, this is true in this area.  For
example, when I started beekeeping in 1981, we could rely on oilseed rape
starting to flower around 3 May, with the main flow in late May.  Now, I
just cannot predict when it will flower - or yield.  A couple of years ago,
we had around 150lbs of honey average on hives at the end of April - unheard
of, we never have any surplus stored at that time - but on 1 May the weather
changed and we had nine weeks of appalling weather - and most of the honey
disappeared.  The following year, after a dreadful spring, we had to feed
bees in late April and then on 1 May everything changed and we had a
reasonably good season.

Well, it may be global warming which may, or may not be down to us, but it
seems to me that three things are indisputable:

1 We have released vast amounts of CO2, that were locked up in fossil fuels,
into the atmosphere  and those in the USA cannot deny that they have played
a major role in this, although others are guilty and it seems likely that
China and India will exacerbate the problem; I read last week that China is
now an even greater consumer than the USA.

2 We (the human race) have removed huge areas of forest, which again locked
up CO2.  Whilst the Amazon rain forests are the first that spring to mind,
we should also remember that the UK was covered in forest in the not too
distant past.

3 CO2 is a greenhouse gas which results in a rise in the earth's
temperature.

In my view, the biggest problem is the sheer number of human beings.  We are
the greatest plague that the earth has ever known and, unless we are able to
control, and reduce, global population levels, I see little hope for the
future of our planet.  Will population growth be contained?  Realistically,
I think not.  We have at least two of the world's major religions trying to
outbreed everyone else and some developing countries see population numbers
as a sign of strength; in India recently I was told with great pride: 'we
are now a country of over 1000 million people'!  I find that very
depressing.

Peter Edwards
convinced that 'sustainable' and 'development' and mutually exclusive
[log in to unmask]
www.stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk/

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