Yep, you might as well burn your ice axe, melt down your crampons
then chuck the rest of your winter gear on top for good measure if a
story in yesterday's Observer is correct.
After the warmest October since records began in 1659, the paper
quotes experts who say that winters are warming up far more than
summers. The result is that autumn is going on later and spring
starting earlier with the two seasons merging into each other during
what used to be 'winter'.
The North of England is now getting the growing conditions which
were previously the preserve of the softy south, while consistent
snow and ice is retreating to the far north of the UK.
All of which is good news for gardeners and those strange folk who
spend their weekends nurturing tomatoes and turnips on their
allotments, but not so great if you like a helping of ice with your
winter mountains or, apparently, if you're a dormouse.
Of course, we've heard it all before and the south of England
isn't yet populated by giraffes or been transformed into a giant
desert and nor has the north been overtaken by arctic conditions, so
we'll be taking this with a pinch of salt as well.
Our theory is that global warming is the direct result of the vast
amount of hot air being omitted by scientists who really ought to
know better...
