Tuesday 30 December 2008

Ice Palaces

Ah bejabers.
We're surrounded by ice palaces, dirty ones at that. I went to the supermarket and every sixth parking space was taken up by the mound of snow that had been shovelled or ploughed there and that had then frozen solid. Soon, there'll be a troglodyte city and then sometime in June when they melt, the creatures will have to return to the north.

The media have coined the term 'Snowmageddon' to describe our recent weather. This seems somewhat overstated. Elsewhere in Canada, they have weeks or months of snow without making too much fuss about it.
A small town in the east of BC has lost eight young men in a series of avalanches. The men were on snowmobiles. Thus, another subject of discussion is whether they were properly equipped and trained. It seems they were and in any case, four of them died trying to dig out the first four who were overtaken by the snowslide.
This morning on TV, the distressed father of one of the men talked about the accident, and that was enough. Trained or not trained, I can certainly imagine one of my sons doing something this foolhardy. I could imagine myself being that distraught parent.

I read in New Scientist that the average European will generate 900 tommes of carbon in their lifetime. The average North American will generate 1,500 tonnes. So, by moving here, have I upped the ante, or do I bring my European carbon parsimony to bear?

Carbongeddon perhaps?

1 comment:

Sleepy said...

As hectic as it all sounds....
I'm still really jealous of it all!