I promised everyone in my last post that would write about my trip to Paris. Well, I've decided to lie. I've decided to write a summary of various news topics which have been hitting the headlines while I have been here in the Sceptered Isles. Think of this as my continuation of a previous post where I talked about Silpa Shetty, David Beckham, and the potential breakup of the United Kingdom.
Amongst various happenings have been:
1) An intentional grounding of a cargo ship off the southwestern coast of Britian on January 22nd. I watched this on television with my colleages at lunch time at VLICA. This event provided plenty of fodder for jokes over what had happened. Apparently people came from as far as the Midlands and Kent in order to try to plunder the shipwrecked goods. Meanwhile the police were given new powers to stop people from hitting the beach in hope of making off with the goodies. Word had it that motorbikes were being sold on Ebay within a day after the ship ran aground.
2. Global warming and climate change have been ongoing topics over here, seemingly much more so than back in America. I can only think that it is because parts of Europe actually have glaciers, while glaciers have melted away. Recent winters have been mild for once. There are plenty of pious noises being made about how fossil fuels are running out and how Europeans have gotten their act together about environmental cleanliness.
Still, I have my doubts about the whole matter. Not about warming, mind you. I do submit that world temperatures have gone up about 1+ degree Celsius over the past 100 years or so. Wow! No doubt that there will be some losers over rising seas, which will do doubt submerge some low lying islands and force some people to move.
But here's the kicker. I have my ear to the ground fairly closely and there is no doubt in my own mind that there are more than a few people out there that love the fact that the world is warming up a bit! Global warming? Bring it on!
Another aspect of this debate that governs my thoughts is that several months ago I was in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia on holiday. While there, I visited the National History Museum, which was not too hot. Try visitng the Muzium Negara or the wonderful Islamic Arts Museum instead.
But I digress. While I was in the KL national history museum, I saw a map of the Malay peninsula from 5,000 - 10,000 years ago. The map showed that the Malay peninsulsa was actually a couple dozen miles narrower at that time then it is now. In other words, the seas were higher at that point in time than they are today and covered parts of the landscape.
Meanwhile, Jared Diamond wrote in Guns, Germs and Steel that the Aboriginies (or Indigenous Australians) arrived on the Australian continent tens of thousands of years before when a land bridge still existed between Aussie Land and probably modern day New Guinea. If that was the case, then the oceans have obviously risen since that time (40,000+ years ago) and have pushed that land bridge below the waves. All of this happened while our ancestors were still struggling with figuring out how to create fire.
My point here is that even if we have global warming happening, then is it really going to matter in the big scheme of things? It seems to me that the Earth goes through cycles of warming and cooling regardless of whether we do anything or not. It just so happens that we may be going through a period of warming which we have had no experience with before. And I would rather have global warming than global cooling! It was only after the last Ice Age receeded 12,000 or so years ago that we humans rose to our current heights of civilization.
3. And finally, the current Labour government announced yesterday that homosexual couples would be allowed to adopt as everyone else would. Obviously, this directive angered religious groups, with Islamic faith groups siding with Catholics - imagine that! This was an extension of what is called the Equality Act. I am willing to put money down that religious adoption agencies will start shutting their doors within 2 years rather than comply with government mandates.
4. Meanwhile, a scandal has enveloped the Blair government where the PM's government is accused of selling Honors for Cash. And this from a government which wanted to do away with the hereditary honors and sweep up the House of Lords.
Enough for now. And I do promise my next posting will be about Paris!
Ciao for now. TMW
Posted by The Mighty Wizard at January 30, 2007 04:26 PM