Dear Editor,
A valued friend has written me from Great Britain about Brexit. The older generation of conservative English people, soon to be dead and gone have ruined the prospects of the younger generation. Clearly a way must be found to rescind this absurdity.
But that is not the purpose of my letter. My friend, a distinguished poet, editor and musician, currently on attachment to the Museum of Natural History at Oxford, writes about something else which in the great sweep of history is far more important than Brexit.
He tells me that a leading scientist at the museum confirms that we are well into a sixth mass extinction of species worldwide. His view is that humanity will do nothing about this and that it will have unforseeable consequences for our own species. Then my friend’s letter goes on as follows: “He also tells me that the northern jet steam has in the past week or so dipped below the equator for the first time.
He showed me on-screen a computer enhanced satellite image. The jet steam has been hovering around the tropic of cancer this summer, but now a huge swathe of it has dipped in a curve below the equator. Climate scientists have never seen this phenomenon before and are uncertain what its consequences may be. If it does not return to the Arctic, however, they may be severe.”
I have not seen this reported in any news outlet. Can Stabroek News find out what is happening and the possible consequences and let its readers know?
Yours faithfully,
Ian McDonald
