February 2023

18 Buckden Roundabout February 2023 Understanding Climate Change Looking at a question from a different angle . Consider this; Is there a water shortage across the W orld? ……. NO there isn ’ t a shortage of water, just exactly the same amount of water on the Earth as before human kind evolved. Because the Earth is a sealed geosphere with a fixed amount of water that is recycled through the natural cleans- ing cycle of rivers, oceans, evaporation, rain and rock strata filtering. We are indeed using the same water that Cleopatra and Julius Caesar used when they ruled their respective peoples. In those early days of civilisation over population and glob- al warming had not presented themselves. They of course had their own problems to deal with. Floods, droughts, food shortages, wars, plagues, and keep- ing warm at night ….. doesn't that sound a little familiar? However solutions then were smaller scale and easier to deal with. Low population, short life expectancy and humble expectations of the masses and wealth for just a few, who exploited the poor, meant solutions cost little. Also at that time it was surely considered that natural resources were infinite and would never run out. With a World population then of approximately. 0.003 Billion. Solutions they came up with, could not have had a global effect. World Modern day population now is at over 8.010 Billion. Everything we as a human race do will now have an effect. Water shortages are predominantly caused by, an ever increasing amount of people, wanting an ever increasing amount of water, from that fixed amount that is available worldwide. Let ’ s enjoy and use our water responsibly. Let ’ s hope others follow the UK ’ s good example for sensible population growth . Global warming is contributing to water shortages worldwide, by moving that water, to and from different areas across the World, not only are weather patterns changing for different countries. Those weather events are becoming more severe and frequent, causing destruction to places that are not prepared. Unexpected weather patterns creating extremes ranging from floods to wildfires , both of which Buckden has experienced, thankfully on- ly in a small way. Cambridge Fire & Rescue tackled over 60 outdoor fires in 2 days of record July tem- peratures. Allan Jones - Buckden Parish Councilor, Climate Change Mitigation Advisory Group.