Life in a greenhouse is boring: witness

Day one of 2006 and Sydney learns what life as an incarcerated tomato is like. You can't move when the heat is 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) for six hours because movement makes you even hotter. Going out in the direct sun when the UV index is 12 feels suicidal and you start to appreciate that the sun is a giant nuclear reactor. In two minutes you can feel the sun's rays start to sting. It takes an eternity to cool down once back inside. I've practiced some Bikram Yoga in the last few years - 90 minutes of fast paced yoga in a room warmed to 38 degrees C and with humidity pumped up to 80% sometimes - but it's a 'cakewalk' compared to getting through yesterday. They say the body likes to maintain it's core temperature at 37 degrees C but when it is 44 outside you can't even consider getting into a hot car and driving over to the pool you have been invited to - and with the UV so high the beach is out unless you go swimming in a burka. No airflow in the darkened house allowed; that is dragon's breath coming through. All you can do is stare at your struggling fan - and go and lie in a cold bath, as motionless as a tomato when it all becomes too unbearable.

Cautious about being alarmist I fought the natural tendancy to consider that the heat is a consquence of global warming but the now the CSIRO say to expect more extremely hot weather like this as the globe warms.

According to CSIRO projections, it will not just get hotter in Sydney. There will be less rain, but winds will be stronger and extreme weather events such as floods and hailstorms will be more frequent. And if hot days fall during the working week rather than at weekends or on public holidays the city's electrical infrastructure will face greater difficulties than those experienced on the weekend.

On the bright side, if January 1, 2006 really is a harbinger of things to come then maybe Sydney will be moved (during the cool spells) to do more now to address the extremes of global warming later.

I found another Sydney blogger who reports her horror heat story on Jan 1: http://susoz.typepad.com/personal_political/

Tags: Global Warming, Heatwave, Climate Change, Earth, Planet, Greenhouse, CO2, Activism, Environment, News, Blog