Just as Joburg slides bizarrely back into winter, I
engineered an escape to the mother city. It's all sunshine and happiness down
here, people, except for the sunshine bit. See, the weather was so horrible
upcountry that none of the inbound flights could land. And that meant they
couldn't get tidied up and sent back to the sea, either. And THAT meant sitting
around in the airport having a good old chinwag with anyone who might be
inclined to listen.
That South African tendency to accept that which you cannot
change, without complaint or issue, came right out to the fore. Delays were
substantial, but hey, the 400-odd of us crammed into the small but exceedingly
generous departure lounge at Lanseria International, were cheerful and cooperative.
Raaather nice.
So, now, has anyone else noticed something funny in the air?
You remember how a few years back, we were all browbeaten by the media into
believing that the planet was lowly heating up, greenhouse gases were surely
frying the world? That global warming was a major problem?
C'mon, admit it, we all believed that. Well, nearly all.
Over at
The Daily Maverick, legendary smartypants Ivo Vegter never was one to fall
for all that, ahem, hot air. He has consistently looked to the facts to debunk
any sort of silliness, global warming included. Even if such debunking makes
him as popular as a pig in Palestine.
You'll admit that what we're getting in Jozi sure isn't
global warming. Actually, we tend to prefer our Novembers a little warmer,
thank you very much.
You will also notice that the term 'global warming' is
something of an anachronism. You just don't hear it that much any more. No,
what we refer to it now is 'climate change'. Why? Because the planet is not
actually getting warmer. The last 'hot' year was back in 1998.
Now that could be an inconvenient truth.
I strongly advise reading all of Ivo's columns. That's a
great example of critical thinking.
Let's be clear here, though. Like Mr. Vegter, I firmly
believe in living as cleanly as possible. Don't litter, no need to drive a five
point oh, no need to emit pollution and rubbish into the air unnecessarily. And
that includes the hot air of inaccurate
information, too. Read that link, it is very, very interesting.