We’re beginning to get very used to these unusually clear skies with not a cloud in sight. We’re also beginning to get used to unusually clear skies with neither aircraft nor their attendant vapour trails in sight, though our hearts go out to the poor stranded folk scattered around the world. It is beginning to get tempting to connect the two phenomena, no doubt erroneously. With the absence of plane exhausts, though, we certainly should be seeing a reduction in global dimming.
Global dimming is an interesting idea which, if I’ve remember/interpret it correctly, hypothesises that particulates from jet aircraft in our atmosphere reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the earth’s surface. Thus, the atmosphere’s temperature doesn’t rise as much as would be expected. An absence of the modern world’s usual global dimming was noticed in American skies during the no-fly zone imposed following “9-11”. (Ed: now look, it really should be 11-9; a 911 is a desirable Porsche.) Date formats aside, the worrying aspect is that global dimming is thought to be masking some of the effects of global warming and that global warming is actually worse than we think (for those who believe in it, anyway).
Still, since we are apparently now blanketed in an invisible layer of volcanic particulates, maybe we’ve got geothermal global dimming replacing the usual technological travel global dimming. Whatever the situation, fortunately I’ve yet to hear any commentator mutter the extremely worrying phrase, nuclear winter.
This was our day to move the strenuous distance of 40 miles from Wareham to Charmouth. The journey would take only an hour or so and we wouldn’t be able to pitch up on the Charmouth site before midday so we spent our last morning wandering Wareham one last time and snapping the intriguing church of St Martins on the Walls, so-called because it sits atop the earthworks that constitute the Saxon town walls.
Our journey went uneventfully and we were offered a pleasant pitch with a high aspect and views. Of course, being high it is also exposed to the chill wind that is helping to keep our weather fine. We’d been getting excited about the possibility of w-fi access at this site. We could have an hour for £4.50 or four hours for £6.00. The second option sounded interesting until we were told that it was four hours in a 24 hour period. What bloody good is that? I want to post blog entries, not surf the web. Spreading four hours over the week would be useful. I could buy a week’s worth for £20. No thanks.
After getting our home for the coming week established, we sauntered three miles or so to Charmouth and back. There isn’t as much of Charmouth as I thought. Judging by the various “Coast Path Diversion” signs, there isn’t much of its Coast Path left, either. Coastal erosion seems to be a particular problem in these parts. Is it all those fossil hunters, after all?
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