But the climate has always constantly changed without any human input. Think the Ice Age for example. Archeologists are constantly unearthing evidence of now hot places once being cold, and the reverse.
Over my 85 years I’ve witnessed massive differences.
Take the seasons. When I was a child in the post-war years it was an annual ritual by boys to peel their burnt skin off at the end of November, after a month of hot summer days.
Sun creams were unheard of in our working class milieu, albeit if they existed, no-one could have afforded them.
The consequences all these years later, are two or three visits annually to a dermatologist mate, to chop-out the dangerous outbreaks, the giveaway being they’re painful.
But what I’ve observed is say a flood occurs causing havoc and invariably being told it’s the worst since 1923, or some such long past date. In other words it’s a perfectly normal phenomenon.
The difference today is the mass movement to city living, compounded by population growth, meaning that such floods now have a huge impact on people.
This year, for the first time in my life, Wellington (and Christchurch) have not had a summer. So too in Britain last year. But I have no doubt that would have happened if New Zealand was uninhabited.
There’s another aspect to this constant change and that’s something I first wrote about 20 or so years ago, in my then weekly newspaper column.
That is, it’s long overdue to recognise the movement in our seasons, specifically that unlike when I was a boy, summer today only really starts in February.
That’s when children return to school. At the time, in response to my article, to my surprise, a Cabinet Minister (I can’t recall who) popped up and said he was the Minister responsible for holidays and would look into it. Nothing however happened.
So today school children start their faux summer holidays about the 10th December, which carry on through until they return at the beginning of February, just as summer arrives.
Is it any surprise to read over this period of so many family violence occurrences. It’s certainly a busy time for the women’s Refuges.
These atrocities are largely the domain of the poorer classes, particularly maoris living crammed indoors in crowded small, state homes.
It’s long overdue to acknowledge these realities and as a critical first measure, align our major public holiday with Europe, that is time off for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, but as in Europe with August, begin our summer holiday in February.
Sir Bob Jones is a renowned author, columnist , property investor, and former politician, who blogs at No Punches Pulled HERE - where this article was sourced.
Take the seasons. When I was a child in the post-war years it was an annual ritual by boys to peel their burnt skin off at the end of November, after a month of hot summer days.
Sun creams were unheard of in our working class milieu, albeit if they existed, no-one could have afforded them.
The consequences all these years later, are two or three visits annually to a dermatologist mate, to chop-out the dangerous outbreaks, the giveaway being they’re painful.
But what I’ve observed is say a flood occurs causing havoc and invariably being told it’s the worst since 1923, or some such long past date. In other words it’s a perfectly normal phenomenon.
The difference today is the mass movement to city living, compounded by population growth, meaning that such floods now have a huge impact on people.
This year, for the first time in my life, Wellington (and Christchurch) have not had a summer. So too in Britain last year. But I have no doubt that would have happened if New Zealand was uninhabited.
There’s another aspect to this constant change and that’s something I first wrote about 20 or so years ago, in my then weekly newspaper column.
That is, it’s long overdue to recognise the movement in our seasons, specifically that unlike when I was a boy, summer today only really starts in February.
That’s when children return to school. At the time, in response to my article, to my surprise, a Cabinet Minister (I can’t recall who) popped up and said he was the Minister responsible for holidays and would look into it. Nothing however happened.
So today school children start their faux summer holidays about the 10th December, which carry on through until they return at the beginning of February, just as summer arrives.
Is it any surprise to read over this period of so many family violence occurrences. It’s certainly a busy time for the women’s Refuges.
These atrocities are largely the domain of the poorer classes, particularly maoris living crammed indoors in crowded small, state homes.
It’s long overdue to acknowledge these realities and as a critical first measure, align our major public holiday with Europe, that is time off for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, but as in Europe with August, begin our summer holiday in February.
Sir Bob Jones is a renowned author, columnist , property investor, and former politician, who blogs at No Punches Pulled HERE - where this article was sourced.
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