13th November, and there's meadowsweet in full bloom in my garden, and there are bees in it !

[Toddy]

13th November, and there's meadowsweet in full bloom in my garden, and there are bees in it !
The Winter flowering Jasmine is in bloom too. My raspberries are still giving me ripe fruit, even the strawberries are fruiting, the roses are blooming, again, and I know I'll probably jinx things now, but it does not feel like November. +12˚C outside this evening. It's quite balmy.....in both senses of the word
The garden was buzzing with bees this afternoon. They were gorging on the nector from the Fuchsias.....which are also blooming. So's the Heather, so there's plenty of food for them I suppose.
No wasps though; they're gone and deceased, so that's a blessing I suppose.
We still have midgies though

Anyone else having a very weird Autumn ?

 

[slowworm]

Not that weird as I'm in the south west, but we our honey bees were active, bumbles are about and still the odd butterfly. There's quite a bit of gorse flowering now with the honey bees on it.

Wasps are still very active and I expect when I go outside there'll be moths about.

 

[TeeDee]

I also noticed Meadowsweet was in bloom.

Greta won't be happy.

 

[Robbi]

We have a rose budding in the garden today..... In November!!

 

[SaraR]

Our fuchsiais going strong, a small foxglove has come up recently, the roses have buds on them and some spring flowers have come up again.

 

[Broch]

I also noticed Meadowsweet was in bloom.

Greta won't be happy.

True, but she tells me she's not happy about the car you just bought either

 

[Toddy]

I'm in Lanarkshire, and going by what I know of some of you, it seems that this is pretty much right across all four countries.

Global warming or just a really gentle intro into Winter.....??

I thought about it last week, bonfire night and Hallowe'en used to be perishing cold and crisp and frosty. Roasted on the side facing the fire and freezing on your backside.....and there was a good reason lots of kids wore 'cloaks' on top of costumes for guising.
Both nights were fun to be allowed out to play late in the dark, make slides on the paths with the ice, and see your breath, see who could breath out furthest/most/dragon like

This year I gardened both days bare arms and legs, and I was comfortable.

We live in interesting times, we really do.

 

[TeeDee]

True, but she tells me she's not happy about the car you just bought either

To be fair.

I don't think much make Greta happy.


Even all this free travelling and sightseeing she has done before her 18th Birthday doesn't seem to even raise a smile.

 

[Toddy]

To be fair.

I don't think much make Greta happy.


Even all this free travelling and sightseeing she has done before her 18th Birthday doesn't seem to even raise a smile.

I'm going to get slated for this but

I find this puzzling though. I genuinely believe that we are screwing up the planet, but.....when the Romans came here to Britain, the temperature was a good 1.5 to 2˚C warmer than it is now.
What is now sub-marginal land was actively farmed land. Look at the runrigs on the hillsides. We can't grow crops there now, yet our ancestors did 2.000 years ago.

 

[TeeDee]

I'm going to get slated for this but

I find this puzzling though. I genuinely believe that we are screwing up the planet, but.....when the Romans came here to Britain, the temperature was a good 1.5 to 2˚C warmer than it is now.
What is now sub-marginal land was actively farmed land. Look at the runrigs on the hillsides. We can't grow crops there now, yet our ancestors did 2.000 years ago.

Isn't there a theory ( cough, cough.... evidence ) that heat temp rises and drops are cyclic. ?

 

[Toddy]

Yes, there is.

The issue this time round though is that we're using up too much fossil fuel, destroying the natural 'atmospheric' protection and thus driving an 'un-natural' heating....sort of really out of synch kind of thing.

Over population, etc., etc.,
I don't think it's going to be an easy fix.
It's one thing to say that we ought not to produce such wasteful plastics, etc., and folks will change their habits accordingly, but it's entirely another to stop driving, flying, and the like.
We don't all have friends with ocean going yachts available, iimmc ? or the wherewithal to take months off work either.
Cycling everywhere does not work for the daily commute for most folks, or for folks like me going to the supermarket either. We emptied the cities here in the 60's and many now are living nowhere near reliable public transport. Those who live in rural communities know that even better than those in the suburbs. Even getting to a Dentist can be an effort and a half.

Nothing against the girl, her message is valid, just that sometimes I feel her stridency doesn't quite encourage folks....or is that just the way it's reported ?

 

[TeeDee]

Yes, there is.

The issue this time round though is that we're using up too much fossil fuel, destroying the natural 'atmospheric' protection and thus driving an 'un-natural' heating....sort of really out of synch kind of thing.

Over population, etc., etc.,
I don't think it's going to be an easy fix.
It's one thing to say that we ought not to produce such wasteful plastics, etc., and folks will change their habits accordingly, but it's entirely another to stop driving, flying, and the like.
We don't all have friends with ocean going yachts available, iimmc ? or the wherewithal to take months off work either.
Cycling everywhere does not work for the daily commute for most folks, or for folks like me going to the supermarket either. We emptied the cities here in the 60's and many now are living nowhere near reliable public transport. Those who live in rural communities know that even better than those in the suburbs. Even getting to a Dentist can be an effort and a half.

Nothing against the girl, her message is valid, just that sometimes I feel her stridency doesn't quite encourage folks....or is that just the way it's reported ?

In all seriousness - I'm kinda glad that Greta exists. It needs someone of youth and zeal to bang the drum and raise attention to the situation - It can just sometimes feel a tad, irksome.

 

[Broch]

Isn't there a theory ( cough, cough.... evidence ) that heat temp rises and drops are cyclic. ?

Yep, we're still coming out of an ice age; the world was always going to get warmer now with or without humans. The problem is that we humans have changed the rate of the increase so we are now scared. The more important problem is we have been damaging the environments that would help dampen the temperature rise (forests) - the cycles are, after all, a controlled damped oscillation. But the world doesn't care; it would recover - we lose a load of species, new ones evolve, we move on.

But wait! man can no longer move; we've built fences and called them countries, there are too many of us to migrate to the temperate zones as we used to.

So, what we should all be concentrating on is how will we all survive in our different environments as the temperatures rise? how are we going to prevent water wars? how are we going to fuel the heating when the gulf stream stops? how will we fuel the air conditioners? Because, as sure as hell (excuse the pun) the world is going to get a lot warmer - it has before and it will again. No number of teenagers stamping their feet are going to change that. We may, if we really all club together (never happened before!) slow it down - but it will get hotter. We are not powerful enough to hold back the tide.

I'll go take my medicine

 

[TeeDee]

But wait! man can no longer move; we've built fences and called them countries, there are too many of us to migrate to the temperate zones as we used to.

Not everywhere.

 

[Tengu]

I dont think the public care about the environment.

And if the politicians did something, they would get voted out very fast.

 

[Suffolkrafter]

And if the politicians did something, they would get voted out very fast.

Therein lies the problem. Politics is not driven by decision making based on what's needed for people and the planet. At least, not solely. I have a lot of respect for Greta. Her message has consistently been 'listen to the science'. As a scientist, I am all for that.

 

[Broch]

Mmm... the planet doesn't care - it's seen worse and lives on; it's only mankind that needs to worry.

The reality is that all sensible people accept the 'science' but the media do not and that is very annoying. News article after news article repeats the inaccuracy that global warming is man-made - it is not - Man has only added to it. If, from the beginning, the truth was told that the world is warming and man's addition will make it much more difficult to deal with it because of the shortened timescale there would be a lot more 'buy-in'.

Unfortunately, Greta only looks at the science, the world is far more complicated than that.

 

[Tengu]

Shes not interested, or caring about people.