Lammas is fast approaching, summer, what's that?  Seriously though, it seems strange to be preparing for the first harvest festival, the first inkling of Autumn, when we have yet to feel summer's golden warmth caress us.
The experts tell us that the Jet Stream is beginning to move up - something that it usually does in spring/early summer.  Once it does move up over the UK the weather should become more settled.
During its journey we can experience quite unsettled weather, rain, wind, typical spring/autumn like weather.

With this summer's record breaking wet weather the subject of Global Warming and who is responsible has reared its head once more.  I have always been in the camp that believes that GW is a naturally occurring phenomena, just as it has done in the past.  I am certainly no expert in this field but I have always felt that the earth would be warming up, with or without us humans.
That said, I am strongly against anything that is harmful to the planet - quite contradictory, I know - and am strongly in favour of doing all I can to minimise my impact here.

Makes me sound hypocritical, I know, but I have always felt that the politicians and the scientists have milked the GW topic for all they could.  The scientists get obscene amounts of money to fund their research, so they are certainly going to want us all to believe in the GW effect.  As for the politicians, well they will do or say anything to curry favour with the voters, so if that meant jumping on the GW bandwagon, so be it.  Most of them will have gas guzzling cars, buy the best of everything just because they can, not because they absolutely have to and waste more money, food and resources than the rest of us.  If we are becoming jaded over the whole GW concept, is it any wonder?

But recently I have been wondering if my thinking is right.  Are we, mankind, responsible for what is going on weather wise, or is it naturally occurring?  It is quite alarming to see the pictures of the floods, worldwide, not just in the UK.  Then there is the extreme heat in the US, all seems crazy.  Are we responsible?
Things do seem to be getting worse on the natural disaster front; recently my husband and I were discussing the increase in earthquakes that occurred last year, and now the floods all over the world.  You cannot help but wonder if mother nature is striking back at us mere mortals for all we have done, or if this kind of thing would have happened anyway.

It's difficult to have an impartial viewpoint either way.  In the meantime I go about my life, trying my best to be as green as I can, doing my best not to damage the earth as I go about my life.  I guess if we all had that mentality we would discover just what kind of impact we have had.  GW is a moot topic, we can't really prove either way what has gone before us.  So my philosophy of living my life in the greenest, most caring way I can is all I can do right now.  If we teach our children to respect the earth, its inhabitants, its resources, then we are doing the best we can.  People mistrust the GW concept because of the scientists and their obscene budgets, because of the politicians and their hypocritical messages, so it is up to us to educate our children to be kind and gentle with the earth.  Maybe then will we truly understand what is happening, when science isn't begging for obscene amounts of money into funding, when politicians aren't cosying themselves up to us, but when we all act in a respectful manner towards the earth.  Until then GW remains a moot subject and extreme weather and natural disasters rage on around us.