Climate change

Day four of the anti-Black Week blog series.

I have been professionally dog walking for nearly 11 years. In that time I have witnessed firsthand the effects of climate change right here in Oslomarka.

As the global average temperature rises we are susceptible to more erratic weather patterns.

Even during the years with huge amounts of snow, it is melting much quicker when Spring arrives and causing problems.

Last Summer we witnessed a forest fire in Maridalen, by Sandermosen. The woods had been bone dry for months and perfect conditions this to happen.

There is nothing new in the fact that we are experiencing events such as landslides, soil erosion, storms, heatwaves, heavy rainfall, flooding and fires.

But what is concerning is the frequency with which they are occurring. Many of them are said to be one in a hundred year or one in a thousand year events. And yet we see them again and again and again.

A study about 5 years ago showed that over the last 30 years at a location 12 kilometers into the Oslo Woods, that first snow is appearing one month later on average and completely melted away one a month earlier on average.

These are not rumours but statistical facts.

The planet’s weather systems are being disrupted. The jet stream which has been stable for a very long time has shifted. Without wanting to go into too much technical detail this is linked to the vanishing of the ice around the North Pole.

Before the last major shift in weather patterns the Sahara was fertile and green.

Whilst many people are confident that we will develop technology to combat this, the brutal reality is that we need a whole scale change with regards to consumption, consumerism and our attitude towards the planet.

Doggies: Aya, Baileys, Ellie, My and Haraka