[pf] Chickens coming home to roost. (no, NOT politics!)

· In my "in-progress" fortnightly:
http://www.emucities.com/emu/misc/davd/GrNZ-RegionalRept-001015.html#50years

· are the statements:
  "It's a huge firewheel we have going here," said Coughlan of the UN's
WMO, referring to global warming. "It's not something you are going to turn
round quickly. What's happening now has been built into the system over the
last 30 to 50 years." Melting glaciers and thinning ice caps are clear
evidence of rising temperatures, weather experts say.
  "We've certainly seen a reduction in the extent of Arctic ice - 20% in
the past 30 years or so," said Geoff Jenkins, head of climate prediction at
the UK Met Office. 

{· These were originally in the Reuters report:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8528 }


· I have said for quite a while that the richer half of the human race took
a wrong turn shortly after 1950, when the "produce, produce!; consume,
consume!" ethic took hold. 
  Instead of what I grew up with (it /is/ as recent as that!) :- getting
and using only what you really need, and working only an ordinary amount
(40 hours a week; Labor Day celebrates when that was brought in).
  "Conspicuous consumption" was a pejorative phrase, then. I can remember
it being levelled at the local Manager of Canadian Pacific Airlines, who
had two cars and a centrally-heated house up in the Waitakere Ranges not
far from where I grew up.

· Now the saying: "if you sow the wind, you'll reap the whirlwind" is
coming true.

David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
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