The Empire of Climate

The Empire of Climate: How the climate affects us. The physical and psychological changes to the human race by the weather.

Eminent geographer Professor David Livingstone wants us to see that climate is more than just the weather outside our window - it's an empire that has shaped our lives throughout history .

I'm continuing on the theme of how we used to live in the past. For anyone living in the UK or ROI may find an awkward connection to both now there is snow 3ft high across much of the country.

Global warming, Climate change, Enhanced Climate Change, Natural Quaternary Process, whatever you want to call it. Surely, we are seeing an affect of human industrialisation. Although you could argue this is a repeat of the volcanic issues of 1782/83 too, which left Europe without warmth and reduced harvests. We did have that Icelandic Volcano erupt earlier in the year, the fall out maybe more prolonged than first thought, who knows.

We spend a lot of time looking at the weather, but looking is not seeing, hearing is not listening. We should be nicer to our home, it won't last forever.

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P.s. For updates, it should be noted that the climate is having extreme shifts between the seasons. Therefore because it has been warmer than normal, we are due to get colder than normal. Just one of the many theories.
Debatable questions: Due to the Artic melting and Canadian Ice Sheet melting, from excess heat. Now the cooling begins as the ocean currents slow down with fresh water inputs from these sources and therefore removing our Gulf Stream warmth, leaving us very much colder.

With a lot less of the Artic ice cube existing does this mean that Northern Europe will have the cold weather move in more frequently as Artic 'land' doesn't take the sting out of the weather for us? Is this an anomaly or a long term effect? Discuss.

It might be Bonfire Night, but what time is it. The Sun, Moon and life eternal.

Stonehenge Winter

With thanks to Madison Reece for her blog entry "Something Special", which set this ball rolling.

It might be Bonfire Night, but what time is it. The Sun, Moon and life eternal.
"Though we are many we are one body", says the Holy Communion for Christian faith, but whilst I may have been going on my themes of magical rights and folklore due to Halloween. It got me also thinking about the Neolithic culture, the Stonehenge world, where people didn't have God as we know today, but the planets and the sun was God to them.

On the 21st December, the Winter Solstice, Pagans and admirers of this past culture gather in wait to see the sun rise.
The Neolithic's are thought to be no body's, something where humans didn't have any control and was a form of prehistoric dark ages, alas so little is known about them and there time, history portrays very little factual evidence. Still with what we think we know, a mass of people every year walked to the stonehenges and Passage Tombs to see the sun rise directly up and over until the central stone was lit. These features, built over years in life time amounts (20 years), suggest they were actually very intelligent people.

Knowth Ireland
Stonehenge UK

The potential out there for something as big as God may well exist, but scientific evidence attempts to defy the odds. Will we ever know? Ants are tiny compared to the earth, but really us humans in relation to the universe, indeed our Galaxy is small. A good concept of this feeling I found, was the Men In Black film endings, particularly the first one. Our Universe is just inside a marble.

I always wanted to know what was making the world go round. How comes it all exists? But such big thoughts makes for bad headaches and questions over life, what happens when we die etc. So many of us happy with believing in a God can be happy, but what makes people happy if they have God?

I have a good tendency to forget, I don't want to know in many ways because its scary, unless a whole hearted solution can be found. So maybe after all that our human instincts to enjoy fire and watch the sun rise in its mighty power is a good thing.
Our 80 odd years is just a dwindle in the suns 10billion, and that's before it goes Supernova. Questions behind time and space, the after life can be dulled down for a little while longer. Lets enjoy our time here. We all like to watch a healthy fire, something that connects us to our bushcraft, our more natural way of life, away from these modern times.

Music for thought:
Sting Featuring Eric Clapton: It's Probably Me
The Korgis: Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime
Karl Jenkins, Requiem: In These Stones Horizons Sing

Photography

They say a photo is worth a thousand words. Last week I heard of a competition being run in my department. This was to photograph our time on our degree course for one category, the other to photograph our time in the city, views of the city and wider university.

Neither of these are easy, lots of design and planning may have to go in to this. I did not intend on entering this competition. However, it has set my mind churning, churning to find a photo which represents my subject and its wider context. This could not be entered in to the competition, but if I had to create a photo of Environmental monitoring, modelling and reconstruction or Geography what would the photo be.

When I did my undergraduate course I was in Canterbury, Kent. In this time I went on many a walk with Sam (friend and housemate). These two photos have him in them. I happened to look through my collection and came upon this photo and have made some simple edits. These photos sum up geography in many respects.

In the first instance, the colour one. It was not designed to look aged, but due to the light balance and October morning mist across the farmland, grassland, barracks area. It appears to be 1960s a bit. This photo shows a man not just looking, studying his surroundings, binoculars at the ready. Prepared for bird watching and spotting any form of wildlife that we may pass. He stares to the left wondering what is down the way. The rural idyll that geographers talk of so much and prescribes the general public's want for a perfect countryside is seen here.



Agriculture in the foreground, woodland in the background. He stands studying the complexities of the local geomorphological processes, the conservation issues and weather at the site. Standing completely still he awaits the natural habitat to open up for him on this cold and misty morning.




In the second version. I have made it black and white and adjusted the balance. Its purposely aged. I tried to get a 1930s-1940s feel, but without giving it a yellow staining for real this looks slightly new. The sharp black of the scarf around the neck, with the foreground sharpened; the background still in tact but making you wonder what's going on it still hides the big secret behind the mist. The field disintegrates before reaching the tree line at ground level and yet we know there is a woodland out there.