Going Too Far The weather is out of control and the European authorities in Brussels think it's time we did something about it. Over a 15 year period, Europe has experienced driest, wettest, coldest and hottest seasons.    Why? The Tsars of Europe believe that Man, that evil criminal race, is causing chemical and thermal pollution of the Earth's atmosphere.

In the 15-year period cited, the UK's winters included the coldest for 200 years, the driest for 100 years and the mildest for 100 years. The UK also had the lowest 16-month rainfall for 200 years and a month with the highest average temperature for 300 years.     The European authorities chose to see human interference with the weather rather than natural fluctuations. Their response was to propose a £5M meteorological study.

The message from the Eurocrats was clear – gather some evidence and then decide what sort of new taxes can be imposed to pay for making changes. The response from the British Meteorological Office was less clear-cut.     The deputy director acknowledged that anything that Man does has an influence on the planet, whether it's putting up buildings which reflect more heat than natural surfaces, pumping pollutants into the atmosphere or laying waste once fertile areas and turning them into deserts.

The problem with trying to change the climate, according to the expert, is that there are too many unknown factors involved. No one knows if the changes being made will balance themselves out in other ways.     In any case, the Eurocrats will want instant results so that they can get their new taxes in place as soon as possible. But the data-gathering campaign is too huge and complex to be rushed to fit in with arbitrary schedules dreamed up by politicians who do not appreciate its scope.

A major problem with trying to control the weather is that no one can say for sure if they have succeeded. The Russians have advanced claims that they have put our forest fires with artificially induced rain.    But Western scientists who examined their data found no clear proof that rain would not have fallen anyway, no matter what the Russians did or did not do.

In fact, the deputy director of the Met Office believes that the main problem is not so much climate change as a change of human sensitivity to the weather.     Man was a nomadic species once. Now tied to fixed points, the human race is much more aware of changes in the weather, and much more aware of how temperature changes affect things like fuel bills.

Does any of the above sound familiar? Of course, it does. Climate change and what to do about it is the hot news at the start of the third millennium. But all of the above was said and done twenty-five years ago. And still the arguments rage over whether global warming is caused by human interference or natural forces, such as fluctuations of the Sun's energy output.    But all this is irrelevant to the two really important issues – 1. Is global warming necessarily a bad thing and something which should be reversed? and 2. Without human intervention, the planet would be heading into another Ice Age, so do we want that to happen? About the only certainty is that the politicians will continue to raise taxes and squander the proceeds. And the human race will learn to adapt to changes in the Earth, which is as it should be, unless some mad scientist finds a way to write off the whole planet in a failed experiment conducted "For the benefit of all Mankind". Compiled by Lyconias Skywatch.etl.

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