I could not resist the temptation on that only too brief Sunday and Monday of "real" snow for 18 years to get out there with my daughter on the piste of Primrose!For my daughter this was the first time to experience snow, she loved every moment of it.
As for myself, I remember only too well the last occasion in London 18 years ago when I found myself snowed in my Baker Street office.
I seem to recall then that it was apparently the wrong kind of snow as far as British Rail was concerned! Now in 2009 it was the wrong kind of quantity! It makes me very proud of our British traditions to blame the weather! I don't ever remember being without public transport of some kind or the other whilst on holiday in the Ski resort of Gstad or Zermat in Switzerland. The Swiss do what comes natural and that is to plan for the snow and anticipate the ice, but then they have had rather more practice at it every year for whole seasons long.
What a pity that as global warming is taking its hold not only is the polar ice caps melting at an alarming rate, but also the winter paradise of the Alps is facing increased ice melts and industrial pollution from cars and industry not in Switzerland itself but from the heavily polluted atmosphere that deliver contaminates which are concentrated in the ice and snow. This is not a very well known or publicised fact in Switzerland but there is a team that sets out every year from the University of Bern to investigate the worsening pollution. But it acts as a strong reminder that CO2 global warming is touching all wildernesses and not just the capital cities.
Author: Nigel Rumble 17 February 2009
