Wishful Thinking

My father has of late been quick to point out how warm winters have become in Norway, and I've assumed that this has been due to the fact that I don't believe in man made global warming. I believe in climate cycles driven by the sun. I also believe that we've seen the warmest of the current cycle, and that we're heading into a little ice age similar to what we saw some 400 years ago. To think such thoughts are of course tantamount to insanity these days, so I've simply assumed that my father's main concern has been for my mental health. However, there may have been some more immediate problem on his mind which has nothing to do with me.

My mother is from England, and she hates Norwegian winters. The ice that builds up on sidewalks during January and February makes it dangerous for anyone older than sixty to go out without spiked soles. The darkness and cold is also a pet hate, but my parents' house is big and well heated. They aren't exactly uncomfortable at home, so it's first and foremost the ice that my mother has a problem with.

The thing about the ice is that it wouldn't build up on sidewalks if winters were a few degrees warmer. My mother's problem with Norway would disappear if we had some global warming, and this may have been my father's main message in conversations that I've had with him lately. He's talking to me about how warm winters in Norway have become with the intent to hammer in some optimism about future winters for my mother.

This thought struck me the other day, because my mother has finally had enough. She's going to move out of Norway for ten weeks or so every winter, starting January 2024. The only thing that hasn't been decided on is where she'll go. The climate may be getting warmer, but this isn't happening fast enough for my mother who intends to spare herself the most nasty part of Norwegian winters by spending winters in England or some other ice free place during winters from here on out.

My father will of course join my mother in her annual flight from ice covered sidewalks. His attempts to keep her from doing so have finally failed. It will be interesting to see if this changes my father's tone when it comes to his concern about my conviction about the climate. If he's suddenly fine with the notion that winters may in fact be getting colder, and that this has been going on since the nineties, it will be clear that my father's concern wasn't about my position on the subject but my mother's increasing impatience with Norwegian winters.

Sidearm of the Jostedal glacier

By G.Lanting - Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link