Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Howzat? 40 degrees, Not Out*

Our weather in Queensland is driving us to distraction.

Just three weeks ago we were sweltering in the mid-40s: if you didn’t have air-con at home and didn’t fancy the shopping malls you had to plan your escape to the coast early to avoid the traffic jams.

Not long prior, we experienced the coldest February day on record. It wasn’t really cold (22 degrees), but it was still a record. Last week we watched a tropical cyclone first threaten and then fizzle off-shore merely to drop a whole month's rain in one hit.

Much like cricket commentators, meteorologists revel in records. And like their cricket brethren, they will keenly partake of this information to their listeners at every opportunity. Viz: TMS: Bill Frindall would pipe up from the background to calmly explain that this score “is the highest by a Sri Lankan number 6 batting second at Trent Bridge”.

Weather presenters have taken their cue and are now ready with a constant stream of new records to report.

I recall the excitement of last August in the UK as the mercury pushed at the ‘all time highest temperature, ever in the UK’ and to make sure we understood the significance ‘…..anywhere’. It was news before it was even news – headlining the lunchtime bulletin in mere anticipation of the record falling, a full two hours before.

Needless to say, the record tumbled and we were all excited and relieved for we could one day ask of others: “where were you on the day Kennedy was shot/the all-time record was broken?*. (*delete as appropriate).

Not content with absolute records (no matter how spurious some cricketing ‘absolute’ records can be), meteorologists even feed us with records within parameters: ‘the hottest/coldest/darkest day for 10 years/5 years/since last week.

This means that the weather can be constantly newsworthy, perfect for today’s saturation media coverage and a boon for broadcasters.

And why not? Weather is ubiquitous, it is ever changing and also it is a safe subject to kick off conversations with complete strangers or people with whom you feel uncomfortable. And the records allow us to sound knowledgable and more interesting too.

“Jeez, it’s gonna be a hot one” can be heard most mornings waiting for a train in the sunshine at Nundah Station.

“Yep, they say its gonna be the hottest March weekday for 5 years.” you can acknowledge with conviction.

Our climate is certainly getting warmer and on a global scale. Global warming ? Most probably. The science supporting this remains more persuasive than the well-funded minority cheerleaders attempting to refute it.

Glaciers are retreating in Patagonia at an alarming rate, the Coral Sea is 2 degrees warmer and is now bleaching the Great Barrier Reef and the tundra-ice in Siberia is melting with the run-off reducing the salinity of the Artic Ocean, threatening to divert the North Atlantic Drift and freeze western Europe.

Cricket records will constantly be broken. It is part of what drives the athlete’s ambitions to win and create enjoyment for the followers of the game. We will all cheer on Warne and Muralitharan, both locked in a battle to secure the ultimate accolade for a bowler: the most Test wickets in a career.

But let’s not cheer on George Bush and John Howard for their lack of ambition in not signing up to the principles of the Kyoto Protocol; for opening up Alaska for oil exploitation; for subsidising the export of oil-shale; for reducing investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. They may bring new meteorological records, but they should not be welcomed.

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