Enjoying a trip back home, but the locals are“Kvetching about the weather!”
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I have been visiting Johannesburg, South Africa, since Thursday of last week. It is late summer here, and the season has been fairly dry. Not that you can tell from the color of the trees that line Johannesburg’s avenues and roads. In light of that, it seems a bit odd that just about everyone I have encountered has complained about the weather.
“The heat has been unbearable etc etc”
“Man! It was 34 today!”
You know, I am so used to the temperature being quoted in Fahrenheit, 34 Centigrade does not mean too much to me any more. I have not found the weather all that hot, and so I am not up to complaining. Yes, if you step out into the noon-day sun (like mad dogs and Englishmen) and stay there, you will feel the heat. But, really, what are they kvetching about? I am barely breaking a sweat! And there is a reason almost no-one has A/C in their homes – you don’t need it. Johannesburg is 6,000ft above sea level, with NO humidity.
I remember once traveling in Spain in midsummer, and at 10 pm, as the sun went down over our campsite, just outside Seville, the temperature was 40! Now, thaaat was hot! You know, hot like Charleston. It didn't drop to 39 till around midnight - talk about a schvitz! We had to have water fights to stay comfortable, never mind sane.
Anyway, back to the present. After chuckling at all my friends and family for complaining about the heat, I thought I’d google a conversion table.
Well, here it is, with the conversion for 34 degrees Centigrade shown ( I'll add the link to this automated table later, y'all . . )
– turns out "34" means it’s in the low-to-mid 90’s.
Hmmmm. Guess it is hot. I can’t argue that 90 isn’t hot now, can I. As Schalk Lourens used to say, "when it’s 90 in the shade, you can break an egg on a flat rock in the sun and it will fry there right in front of your eyes!" (The way the locals are complaining, maybe that should be "Skulk" Lourens. Come to think of it, maybe it always was. Better yet, make that Moner van Heerden! ) Anyway, frying the egg I haven’t tried.
But I have been outside here, and I can tell you, 34 centigrade on the Highveld, if that's what it was, is simply not hot – it may be hot "For" the Highveld, but it is not hot. Not for a resident of Charleston, SC. There, we have 90’s and more, but with HUMIDITY!!!!!! So, we know! about hot.
So, in all humil(d)ity - Quit whining already! The sky is blue, the air clear and the colors of the summer are splendid. Enjoy already! When it comes to weather, you Jo’burgers don’t know how good this is.
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Part 2:
It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world:
You may have seen the above composite derived from the US museum of Natural History website. Well, to understand the world in greater detail, and with more immediate effect, visit this "worldmapper" web site developed by the University of Sheffield in England. Remember to click on images to see them more fully, and check out the categories for topical issues that interest you.
PS: 3-26-07 The point about CO2 emissions is this - opponents of measures to curb emissions, including opponents of Kyoto, like to say that the US can't do it alone. While that is true, the maps illustrate how much the US can do because of the large proportion of emissions it is responsible for. Europe, which is a significant contributor as well, is ahead of the US on this, (although many city and state governments in the US have got on board). But if you combine the US, Europe and Japan, and there is a significant potential for reductions in emissions. The question is whether the US sees any value in leading by example.
For the Sheffield map on greenhouse gases, click here.
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