Weather or not

Major snowfall in March, heaviest fall of the winter, was not until recent years, part of localised weather pattern.

Despite the flood of adverse propaganda repeatedly –– and so determinedly –– force-fed to anyone who will listen, climate change sceptics have, no doubt, got the scenario totally wrong as those living in harmony with the natural world have to deal with the increased vagaries of altered weather patterns on an almost daily basis now.

Take for example the incredible amount of snow that fell in Murree just last week: well over three feet of the white stuff, ‘big’ snow, not the light, powdery kind, descended overnight and gave emerging –– in some cases blossoming –– spring flowers a major shock. The weight caused havoc in orchards and forests alike, breaking countless branches and in many places, downing entire trees.

Major snowfall in March, the heaviest fall of the winter, in fact, was not until recent years, a part of the localised weather pattern: winter now arrives later –– much later –– than in days gone by and slap-bang in the middle of this altered winter period, there is a sudden spring, which lasts just long enough to bring early blossoming fruit and nut trees –– apricots and almonds being a prime example –– to glorious life when winter returns with catastrophic results before the ‘real’ spring makes itself known and felt.

This strange, very unpredictable winter followed by a ‘false spring’, then back to winter before a ‘real’ spring, is –– if the pattern continues –– something which nature will take hundreds of years, at least, to adapt to as plant species, animals, birds and the insect world cannot, unlike humans, factor it into their survival mechanisms overnight; it will take plants, for example, hundreds –– perhaps even thousands –– of years to evolve to deal with this increasingly strange procession of seasons.

Climate change is real –– frighteningly so –– and this is what makes it far more horrifying than in the past when, over millions of years, the climate did change but in doing so, provided enough time for the inhabitants of the natural world to evolve and adapt. Not so this time as the change, assisted, if not entirely to be blamed, on humankind and its increasingly unsustainable lifestyle, is far too rapid for nature to make sense of, let alone evolve necessary coping methods.

The strangest most inexplicable thing of all, however, is that the vast majority of the global population has no thought, let alone care, for the planetary destruction behind this rampaging weather change and is totally and wantonly oblivious to its looming effect. Any shift in climate patterns –– and the current shift is huge –– has an impact on food supplies as it, quite obviously, has a direct effect on sowing and harvesting times, on the suitability and viability of crops traditionally grown in any one area and on which not just local communities, but entire nations depend for their basic food security. Rapid climate change has the devastating potential to alter a traditionally high-yielding crop. The obvious result is hunger, malnutrition and in a short period of time, outright famine.

Understanding the inseparable links between the unrealistic environmental exploitation necessary to support the unsustainable lifestyle of the majority, altered cropping patterns, the urgent need for climatically suitable alternative crops and the big bad boogie man of climate change itself, does not require a degree in rocket science. It does though demand immediate attention and action if, that is, the human race can be bothered to survive.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2014.

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