Климат. Погода. Экология. Чтение

CLIMATE AND WEATHER

Do they have climate in Britain?

What are pea-soupers?

What is weather-brotherhood?

The climate is for the English a stock subject for conversation, a traditional joke, and a source of delusions. Its only constant feature is its changeableness, We ha­ven’t a climate, we have only samples of weather”, runs an English saying. You leave home hatless and coatless in fine autumn sunshine, and arrive in the office in pouring rain. You light a fire on a chill October morning and by midday you are trying to damp it down.

As it is always interfering with one’s plans, it is indeed a subject of the widest possible topicality. Two people who do not know each other can talk about the weather for hours, it seems that English are of a friendly nature and live in a weather brotherhood without any necessity o knowing each other. It is often said that the English manner is very cool, like their weather, but it is not so when they talk about it. The English climate is moody but not impossible. You can ne give a definite idea of what is going to come, but you are sure about it in your mind — it will be a case of bringing umbrellas with you always!

The art of meteorological forecasting has in most countries gained deserved prestige. But in England, it is little more than a music-hall joke. Some time ago, the Meteorological Office re­minded the English that its forecasts had been fifty percent correct. The public, with a friendly smile, pointed out that the same degree of accuracy could be obtained by spinning a coin.

From October to March, there are many dense mists called fogs or “pea-soupers”. In cit­ies where they mix with smoke, they become “smog” and sometimes interrupt traffic.

After the Autumn rain, and the penetrating chill of Winter, the English Spring has all the more charm. The rain is always there to join in with “the sweet showers of April”.

Nevertheless, the filtered sunlight smiles on the sap-filled woods and pastures. Great Brit­ain, once more the green land of legend, clothes herself in a thick mantle of green grass pierced by the first crocuses. An April madness takes hold of London when the flower girls in the street start to sell the first pale meadow daffodils.

The real reason why an Englishman can never be a townsman at heart is that his weather obtrudes itself so regularly in his daily life that his mind can never be far from the things that the weather speaks of — the seed time and harvest...

The United Kingdom has a mild and temperate climate warmed by the North Atlantic Drift /a continuation of the Gulf Stream/ and by southwestern winds.

The prevailing winds are southwesterly, and daily weather is mainly influenced by depressions moving eastward across the Atlantic.

The climate is subject to frequent changes but to few extremes of temperature. It is rarely above +32C /90F/ or below +10C /14F/. The mean annual temperature ranges from +8C to +11C. The mean monthly temperature in the extreme North, in Shetland ranges from +3C during the winter to +11C during the summer.

The annual average rainfall is over 1600 mm. in the mountainous areas and 700 over cen­tral parts. March to June are the driest months and September to January the wettest.

During May, June and July the daily duration of sunshine varies from 5 hours in Northern Scotland to 8 hours on the Isle of Wight. During the months of shortest daylight /November, December and January the duration varies from an hour and a half in northern Scotland to two hours on the southern coast.

Scanty sunshine combined with the prevalence of fogs and drizzle give rise to the prover­bial dreary English weather.

ECOLOGY

What is green house effect?

Is passive smoking dangerous?

What is CFC?

ature is under threat. We have a moral duty to look after our planet. Where there are real threats to our planet, we have to take great care. Prevention is better than cure. The Gov­ernment of Great Britain aims: to preserve Britain’s nature, to encourage the more efficient use of energy, to make sure that Britain’s air and water are clean and safe, to maintain Britain’s contribution to environment research.

Population Growth. The world’s population doubled. That demand more agricultural land. That in turn leads to deforestation soil erosion. The government’s overseas aid programme supports food projects as well as family planning.

Biological diversity. By burning forests, draining, polluting and overfishing mankind is driving many species to extinction. The Government supports international efforts to protect species.

Global Warming. Britain has already taken a lead in securing international agreement to phase out CFCs /chlorofluorocarbon/, the green house gases, by 2000. Trees can help because they absorb carbon dioxide. The past decade has seen double the area of the green belts around English cities. The Govern­ment will continue to encourage tree planting.

Many trunk road bypasses have been built in England which relieved many towns of the pressure

of heavy traffic

...  Good Air. Good air is essential for health. Levels of lead in air have been reduced by pollution

control and reduction of lead in petrol. Pollution from car and factories is making a hole in the ozone layer bigger. Britain’s air will improve due to:

strengthening of controls and exploring action against pulmonary disease;

avoiding passive smoking;

reducing carbon monoxide for all new cars;

controlling smoke from heavy diesels;

extending monitoring of air pollution;

adding an emission check to the MOT /Ministry of Transport/ tests.

Power generation companies will spend 6 billion pounds on desulphurisation equipment to re­duce acid emissions from large power stations.

Water. In 1989 the Government created the National Rivers Authority. 95% of Britain’s river length is of good quality; the European Community average is 75%. The newly privatized industry in Eng­land and Wales will invest 28 billion pounds by 2000, to improve sewerage works, to bring drinking and bathing waters up to standard.

North Sea. In 1988, 18,000 seals were killed by a virus in the North Sea. From the pollution many fish are becoming poisonous to eat. In the North Sea and other seas around Britain, the Government works to:

cut inputs of dangerous substances to all coastal waters from rivers;

stop the dumping of sewage sludge at sea;

tighten standards for chemical and oil discharge at sea;

reduce pollution from off shore oil installations;

provide greater protection for marine wildlife;

support international research and monitoring.

Noise. Noise can do irreparable damage to hearing. It may be controlled by: by requiring quieter products or machinery; insulating people from it;

providing effective powers to stop excessive noise.

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