European Nuclear Society

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Arctic; Climate change
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.687.6535; http://www.euronuclear.org/e-news/pdf/e-news-23.pdf

In the season of crises it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good As the French expression goes: “jamais deux sans trois”, or disasters always come in threes. Well, so far this winter has indeed been characterised by a succession of crises. First, we had the credit crunch that continues to threaten financial and economic meltdown on an unprecedented global scale and looks likely to dominate the scene for quite some time to come. Then we had the first “real winter ” for many years, with arctic temperatures, heavy snow fall in places like Marseille, Nice and Madrid and resultant travel chaos and increased energy consumption. For those of us who thought that climate change meant warm and wet winters from now on it has been quite disconcerting. And then there was the gas supply crisis that sent many governments into a flat spin. A financial crisis, an energy supply crisis and a severe weather crisis – what an unholy triumvirate! Shakespeare’s famous words “Now is the winter of our discontent… ” seem particularly evocative now. So what, you might say. Harsh winters are par for the course in many countries and