I can go outside right now without a damn scarf and that's just not normal.
This is January in Paris and I'm freaking out that I can walk outside for an hour without the cold making the insides of my ears hurt. Or my nose run. Or my knees shiver. That's what Parisian winters are supposed to be about. So why did I see a girl out last night wearing sandals???
A few months ago, the weather was cold enough to cover the ground in frost at my in-laws' in the countryside and to kill a few unfortunate homeless people in Paris. The forecast for today, however, is 11°C (52°F). Quoi? One site states the average temperature for Paris in January as 3°C (39°F).
Everyone I talk to says the same thing: This is really great, but does it mean we're doomed?
Is this freaky heat really because of us selfish humans with our cars and smoke spitting factories? Surely this has happened in history before. On a taxi ride home once, the driver said he'd been told by an elderly passenger that after the turn of the century, it'd gotten so hot in Paris that the Seine had dried up to the point that you could wade across it in certain areas. However, I can't verify this story and the cabbie's historian credentials weren't hanging next to his taxi license.
But while I couldn't find any information on this story, I did stumble across this article which tells of a similar account that happened in Paris back in pre-automobile 1540.
Then I found this bit from a 1975 Newsweek article that scared readers about global cooling. Are you confused yet?
When I go home to Southern California, what always gets me is how many people are driving their huge trucks and suvs everywhere. Unless you're in construction or you help friends move houses every weekend, why the hell are you driving that? My stomach always turns as I see the brown haze hang over the mountains from the 210 freeway. Hhmm, that's the sweet air your kids are breathing.
I love Paris, the city that lets me go everywhere without having a car at all. But that's not to say we've got it better here. The périphérique that circles Paris is always congested and I can't go for a run along the Seine (which, in our neighborhood, runs alongside a busy highway) without feeling like I've smoked half a pack. There are reports that predict a future rise in deaths caused by air pollution in European cities.
Let's bring back the horse and buggy already!
There are those who think the issue of our affect on the climate change has been blown out of proportion and that climate change shouldn't be exploited and used to scare people. That's nice in theory, but can you explain the sandal clad pedestrian last night?
Fortunately, the temperature looks it will be dropping a bit in the next few days. And hopefully soon, we will have the reassurance of a real Parisian winter. We'll be happy to be miserably cold.