Tuesday, September 20, 2011

2011 Streak Day 234 (Monday Aug 22nd): Rest Day

2011 Streak Day 234 (Monday Aug 22nd): Walk - 1 mile, Time - 20min, Weather - Wow there was sun

The picture is of a garden umbrella. Sun, an actual bright yellow ball in a blue sky sun, is shining through making it a bright vibrant red. It is amazing how the weather can affect your mood - a bit of summer sun and everything in the world feels more relaxed and easier.
Sitting out this time of year should be the norm but this August has been mostly grey and damp. Even the weather in France was not as bright as normal.
It makes me think of the term ‘climate change’. Famously a Republican strategist, Frank Luntz, advised George Bush to use the term climate change instead of global warming because he felt it sounded softer and less threatening (and they wanted to push away any action on the environment). In someways this is an example of how politicians seek to hijack language in support of their own ends but in this case I think he might have inadvertently helped.  Global warming does not mean that everywhere gets warmer: it means the overall temperature of the globe is rising, with immense variations in local weather patterns. As most people only tend to notice the weather they themselves experience it is very easy to think warming is not happening if you have a bad summer. However the strangeness of recent weather patterns is hard to ignore. It is climate change.
Anyway, sitting out, having a rest day after the 10 miler, everything is as it should be. Thoughts about the use of language are just one of a number of things that floated across my mind. But I have no desire to bore youa with a stream of consciousness.

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