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Current State of Mind: Argh.
In those other areas, though... oh my goodness. Houses have been destroyed, and there's been a good number of deaths as well, plus there's missing persons, and issues with drinking water supplies - plus, of course, issues with electricity and gas supply. Some areas are cut off by floods.
Like one newspaper wrote, it's a shock, but it does not come entirely as a surprise. We've had changes in weather over the last years, with winters getting warmer and summers getting unpredictably hot, or wet. Climate scientists have warned for years that things like this will happen, and will happen more frequently.
What I really, really find shocking (though, unfortunately, also not surprising) is that one of the candidates for becoming chancellor in September actually said that, "well, because of this one single day, you do not change politics". That was when he was asked if he really thinks brown coal mining should not be stopped sooner than planned, in the light of the obvious consequences of climate change...
What? WHAT? Well, if that single day does not make you think, what will? By the way, that guy is the same person who said that "we have to act sooner, and do more, to counter climate change". Erm. Your party is the one who has been at the rudder these last 16 years, and it's also the one that has blocked many, many ventures to become carbon-neutral and more climate-friendly faster.
We have no children, and honestly, in times like these? I'm really, really glad we made that decision. For all those that did have children, though... I very much hope that a lot of people see that we need a change in the ruling party, and we need it now, and towards one that will take our situation seriously and actually do things to slow down the climate catastrophe.
Comments 2
Something really sad is that children born right now think covid, social isolation, floods, heat wave fires, restricted travel to or from the countries nextdoor, are all normal. So the good news is it won't distress them as they've nothing to compare it to - it's "part of the furniture", but it also means it'll be a while until they can comprehend and imagine the world we describe to them that doesn't have these things and that it may be possible to not have them again.
The tone of a national radio programme I overheard yesterday was "There are floods" "OK" "They've washed whole towns away" "OK" "In Germany" "Germany?! That's serious!" It was interesting hearing Brexiteers speaking of Germany as the fabled land of brilliant public infrastructure, boundless resources (materials and knowhow) and government response, where all public emergencies are swiftly resolved with remedies that are better than what was there before. The general feeling was that if Germany or Japan couldn't deal with something, then the thing was too big to be dealt with. Makes you wonder why the speakers were so keen to leave.