成人快手

Good morning.

鈥淚n Hertfordshire, Herefordshire and Hants, hurricanes, hardly happen.鈥� So, claimed Professor Henry Higgins, teaching Eliza Doolittle to pronounce her 鈥淗鈥漵 in the screen adaptation of George Bernard Shaw鈥檚 wonderful play, Pygmalion. The good professor鈥檚 words were certainly more accurate than the 成人快手 weather forecast earlier this week, when a data error led to predictions of wind speeds in the thousands of miles per hour across much of the UK, and beyond. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, a very real hurricane was passing through Florida, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake, though mercifully with fewer deaths than initially feared.

Yet, whilst the reality of Hurricane Milton cannot be denied, its causes appear to have become fertile ground for conspiracy theorists. At their wildest, these claim that some dark agency, with sinister purposes, which for many is the US Government, has discovered how to control the weather, creating the hurricane in order to influence (one way or another) the forthcoming presidential election. I鈥檝e long suspected the human psyche has an inbuilt bias towards finding purpose and intentionality where none exists. For those who feel powerless and marginalised, the notion that someone, somewhere, is conspiring against them, may be more comforting than recognising simply that bad stuff happens.

Religions have often played a part, ascribing divine origin to phenomena such as extreme weather events, be it Thor鈥檚 thunderbolts or Noah鈥檚 flood. Yet whilst I believe firmly that God can and does interact with the Creation, I鈥檓 not drawn to the notion that everything on Earth is divinely micromanaged. Rather, I see most things happening naturally, as the laws of physics, mathematics and biology run their course, in a world made orderly, but flexibly, by its creator. I see human free will as one of God鈥檚 most precious gifts, allowing us to choose our way in life. In such a non-deterministic universe, catastrophes, cancers and crime are things to which my faith calls me to make a caring and compassionate response, not signs of divine indifference or malign intent.

Still, at one level, I agree with the conspiracy theorists. The increasing prevalence of extreme weather, if not any specific hurricane, does have a human origin. Not with the machinations of the US government, but with the heating of the planet consequent upon human driven climate change. The conspirators are not a murky cabal, they are you and me, and companies, and governments, who are all failing to respond to the climate emergency.

Yet, I鈥檓 an optimist. I think we can still halt the slide. Not least so that in generations to come we can still recite Professor Higgins鈥� reassuring words to the inhabitants of 鈥淗ertfordshire, Herefordshire and Hants鈥�.

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