White Christmas – white winters?
IN MY OPINIONKLAUS DORING
We all know the difference between enjoying a white Christmas or white winters. With record-breaking temperatures around the world this winter, the people in my home country Germany but also neighboring Austria and Switzerland – known for winter wonderland tourism – are really missing white winters. Surely, it reflects on the absurdity of negotiating a global temperature. Who of us could be in another opinion?
I remember well my first winter in Germany still being a little boy: it was cold, so cold. Breath away taking cold. Living in the deep at the time, I was astounded to see people skiing along the forest path on the stretch of park I typically biked through to get downtown. Winter during my childhood, was also harsh. Even my Filipina wife experienced and established her own personal limit below 0 degrees Celsius for bike-riding or even travelling around.
Both of us were enchanted with how snow transformed the drab surroundings into a “winter wonderland.” One of my friends in Berlin had become a sledding enthusiast – she had so much fun, that I bought myself a used sled that spring at a flea market. Once upon a time: Christmas is over, but the snow hasn’t come again.
Let’s talk about the world. Globally, this “winter” had been the warmest on record until this year. Of course, winter is not yet over, but what can we expect more? And next year could continue to break records – because the planet is warming. Since pre-industrial times, average global temperature has increased by about a degree Celsius. Not a good thing, indeed. Staying in the Philippines for good since 17 years now, I observed this not good thing even here.
Some people might point out that warmer winters – especially in central Europe – are a boon. Less people will die due to extreme cold, and the growing season is longer. Global warming looks likely to make grape cultivation – and thus wine production – possible in Scandinavia, for example.
Although there might be a few bright spots resulting from global warming, the big picture does not look good. As past years have already indicated, climate change is resulting in more severe storms, heavy flooding, and prolonged heat and dry periods.
This harms ecosystems, and systems we humans depend on: food production, water supply, healthy oceans.
As climate change marches on, around the world – and also in Europe – we will ever more directly feel the results of this massive experiment that humans are conducting with the Earth. As I mentioned before: winter sports have also taken a hit due to this year’s warm winter. Sure, while covering the climate summit in Paris, at one point I was struck with the absurdity: How can people negotiate the temperature of the planet? Many were pleased with the stated 1.5-degree goal that came out of the Paris Agreement. But just imagine: If what we are seeing now is 1 degree, what will another half degree be like?
Be mad at me. Call me a pessimist. But, negotiating the climate is not only absurd, it’s astoe undingly arrogant.Innumerable species and human lives hang in the balance. If the global community were to truly take responsibility, we’d stop burning fossil fuels this very moment. And here in the Philippines the uncounted fires of our neighbors because of non-existing waste management … ! Maybe someday I will relate to my grandchildren what snow was like. Maybe my complaint is premature – maybe the weather will swing into the other direction, and we’ll have massive blizzards. In summer perhaps. Maybe Greenland’s ice sheet melt-off will plunge Europe into a new Ice Age, as some predict. As we all know: we’re talking now about climate CHANGES… .
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Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me in Facebook or Twitter or visitwww.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.
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