WEATHER FORECASTS

Ok the BBC weather on 5Live says it might rain later, very vague so I check their weather web site and it says 14% chance at 2pm rising to 41% by 7pm. Alexa says 58% chance by 5pm, MetOffice says 30% chance of rain at 10pm and Siri says rain at 4pm and then continuing to the late night.

CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS

I like the quote ‘there is no need to give two sides of an argument about whether it is raining – just look out of the fucking window”. The fossil fuel industry, having spent $billions supporting spurious scientific claims about climate change is in retreat. However the Tory party is full of selfish pricks.

POSITIVE NEWS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Well done Julia Davies, lawyer and former part owner of Osprey Europe outdoor equipment company. rather than buy and rewind some land herself she has guaranteed a £4 million loan to Dorset Wildlife Trust to obtain and rewild Court Farm near Bere Regis. this loan whatever then enabled the trust to obtain further grants. Let’s hope there are more philanthropists like her to counter decades of harmful farming policies.

GREEN ISSUES

The governments Environment Bill is an attempt to reduce domestic environment thresholds following Brexit. the House of Lords have tabled over 100 amendments. The ECJ is to be replaced by an Office for Environmental Protection. Which will weaken not strengthen environmental protection. The government maintains that it will be operationally independent from Defra and ministers will not be able to influence its decisions. Anyone who believes that is a total fool.

EARTHQUAKE

We have not had a major earthquake for a while. With climate change glaciers are melting, thus transferring a huge weight of water from the land to the sea. readjustment must be expected.

HURRICANE IDA

This hurricane has continued to wreak havoc as its wind intensity diminishes. Its capacity for rain though has caused multiple deaths in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile in the mid-Atlantic Hurricane Larry has already recorded wind speeds close to 130kph. Its course is too early for great predictions but could cause problems in a weeks time. At present it looks like it could cause problems in the Bermuda region and then then Canadas Atlantic provinces, having been deflected away from the USA coast by the jet stream. It is only the start of September so we can expect more activity over the next 6-8 weeks.

ELECTRIC CARS

Shell announce plans for 150000 charging points by 2025. Presumably BP and other companies will instal similar numbers. Add to these public charging points those who have, or will, install charging points at home it would seem likely that there will be enough infrastructure in place.

LABOUR SHORTAGES

For too long businesses have been suppressing wages. Unions have been hampered by legislation. Now we have shortages of labour in many sectors, especially in low paid physically hard jobs such as in meat packing factories and pickers on farms.