I am writing this mid afternoon as the high winds are beginning to ease. A little while ago we had sunshine and blue skies but the wind is still strong enough to change the weather every ten minutes, blow it in and blow it out again. When I left the house, I was instantly struck by how warm it was. I was expecting the chill of the past week but it’s 15 degrees, way above average for this time of year.
Bert is an odd name for a storm, reminiscent of the working class or of aristocracy. King Edward VII, the playboy prince, and king from 1901 to 1910 was known to his friends and family as Bertie. Though, I think of Bert as a figure like Andy Capp with a cloth cap, perhaps carrying a ladder and bucket, a window cleaner.
Bert’s winds have come from the SW, blowing up from the Azores bringing warmth and lots of rain. In London, we have escaped much of the rain but are getting the warmth that comes in its wake. This is climate change in action. The hotter atmosphere gives more energy to storms, and draws up more rain from the sea. An apt storm to signal the end of the disappointing COP29.
They tend to be compromised by oil producers who force any agreement down to the lowest common denominator. This one began badly with the President of Azerbaijan saying, oil and gas ‘were a gift from God.’ You might wonder, why Azerbaijan got to be hosts of the COP? A country that has said, it is going to up its output of natural gas in the next decade. Oil and gas make up 90% of its exports. It’s why such activists as Greta Thunberg no longer come these talk shops, regarding the COPs as a waste of her time, ending up with fake promises that few of the rich countries intend to keep.
1.5 degrees of warming is history. We are heading for at least 3 degrees by the end of the century, with all the droughts, floods and wildfires that will bring. Unless we get serious.
$300 billion dollars has been promised at COP29, to be paid to developing countries. The cash is intended to assist them in getting off fossil fuels and into green energy. The big oil producers, like the hosts, fought to keep this figure down from the trillion being sought. Such countries are going to keep selling oil and gas, no mater what. They are the Fifth Column, here to dash hopes and keep the pumps on full.
The US in the dying days of the Biden Administration attended, but Trump, the incoming president, says climate change is a hoax. His administration will cut back on environmental activity, in terms of money and manpower. The world is wondering about China, the world’s biggest polluter when it comes to CO2. The Chinese accept climate change is real, suffering droughts and wildfires. China has too many coal fired power stations, at the same time they are upping their usage of wind and solar power. With Trump rubbishing climate change, might they steal a march?
Fake news, fake news, Trump will claim.
There are heaps of leaves down Earlham Grove. It is intriguing how they collect in piles with bare gaps between, almost as if they have been swept like this. Once a pile begins, it stops leaves blowing past and so it grows. Virtually all the leaves on the plane trees down the street have gone.
The biggest tree in the garden, the sycamore, is bare too. There are still leaves on the silver birch. It’s tiny leave have less surface area, so hang on longer, but the two cherry trees are bare. Sure signs of winter.
I listen to the sound of the wind as it ebbs and flows, the whoosh of it, the echoes of climate change.