Pitter patter, pitter patter
I seem to be emerging from a really bad few days – a combination of the sudden switch to a low-carb diet, the Covid booster, and a UTI that really took it out of me. I’m feeling more human today, but not yet at anything like ‘normal’. I haven’t had confirmation yet, but I suspect that changes in sugar levels caused by my kidneys adjusting to a low-carb diet provided a perfect growth medium for the UTI, and the consequence has been two days of shivering, wrapping myself up, dozing a lot, sleeping badly and generally feeling crappy. I thought I might get some reading done, but I keep getting through only half-a-dozen paragraphs before dozing off. Plus, my enjoyment of The Mask of Dimitrios has been spoiled by the protagonist suddenly acting like a dick for no obvious reason and inconsistently with his character up to that point.
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Reflecting on COP26, the optimism from politicians seems to be based on a series of nudges towards doing the right thing. Meantime, the figures are skewed by inherent problems. For whatever reason, countries are under-reporting their emissions (we know this from satellite data), and even if the data were scrupulously precise, my understanding is that marine and military emissions figures are omitted anyway.
Just over a year ago, I wrote here that I’m not generally given to catastrophism, but it’s hard not to harken to its siren call. It isn’t just looking at what’s happening in the Pacific North West right now, it’s looking at the numbers and reading what the scientists closest to the ground are saying. And I’m not interested in political reassurances based on incomplete, skewed data, especially if the climate sensitivity modelling turns out to be way understated and tipping points into permanent, large-scale transitions have been overestimated. I’m 62 now, and the only question is just how bad it’s going to get in my lifetime, let alone my children’s lifetimes, even if we took all the steps necessary now to cut emissions..
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