Second hot summer

During July in 2021 we had tropical heat on the prairies in Western Canada, where I live. +30 degrees Celsius day in and day out for some 5 weeks. And very little rain resulting in bone dry conditions and low crop yields.

This year farmers had better luck with some good rains in June, before things started to dry out. Then along came August with another tropical heat wave that we are in right now. +31 yesterday and the same expected today.

When I first arrived in Canada I was struck with how cool the summers used to feel, after some 21 years spent in Australia. Not any more.

In 1961 I spent 6 months with my family in Baghdad, Iraq where the temperature during summer fluctuated anywhere between +40 and +45 degrees C, making +35 feel ‘cool’ when it happened from time to time.

The locals in the Middle East are well adapted to these conditions in terms of personal habits and clothes worn, for example. They also take a break from about 10am till 4pm every day to get away from the searing heat. Their day starts around 4am.

I am fortunate to live in a little “green paradise” consisting of 20 acres of bushland cooling down air moving through the vegetation. In contrast to what happens in the parking lot of a shopping mall, for example.

I also have an eight foot by 30 inch swimming pool installed in my garden, in which to cool down in the late afternoon.

Problem is, what happens in the years ahead? That methane gas pouring out of the melting permafrost in the arctic around the globe has got me really worried. Once unleashed, as has happened, this process feeds on itself...