[Acrylic-bob]

The Cassandra’s at the BBC emerged from their sibylline conclaves last week to deliver dire prophecies on the state of the world’s climate. We are, it appears, on our way to hell, not just in a handcart but in a fuel guzzling industrial behemoth of our own devising, spewing atmospheric pollution and carbon dioxide as we go. And, what is more, shaking their collective heads wearily, they conclude that this sorry state of affairs is all of our own doing; there is no one to blame but ourselves. Mean global sea levels are rising inexorably, Arctic glaciers are shrinking at an alarming rate, the world is warming and we are all doomed, DOOMED I tell you!

Which is all jolly interesting and makes for an entertaining programme strand; a worthy, and profitable, way to fill up the vacant slots in the schedule. But, sitting here in my equivalent of Voltaire’s garden, I cannot help thinking that we have been here before. Those of us with some acquaintance of the history of our species will recognise this hoo-hah over climate change as a manifestation of that periodic malaise which appears to accompany the entirely spurious significance accorded to the change in our system of designating and recording our experience of time. It is known as either Millennial angst, or Centennial angst and usually occurs around the period of the change from one millennium to another or from one century to another. This manifestation is unusually intense because, currently, we are experiencing both.

Prior to the outbreak of the first world war, the whole of intellectual Europe was in the grip of what was termed “Fin-de-siecle” or the end of an era, in which it was generally feared that invading hordes from the east were due on the doorstep at any moment to sweep away the decadent societies of the west. So intense was this fear that the nations of Europe decided to pre-empt the invading hordes and destroy their own societies; a get it out of the way and then we can get on sort of thing. And it has been the same to a greater or lesser extent with every change over of the dating system from one century into the next.

Calmer heads will tell you that panic and knee jerk reaction is not a reliable solution to any problem. They will slap the Cassandra’s around the chops and tell them to get a grip. They will point out that the world’s climatic systems and the periodic changes it undergoes are, as yet, poorly understood. They will also point to the resourcefulness of the human imagination and the experience of the Dutch, who have lived below mean sea level for hundreds of years without any significant deterioration in their standard of living.

While probability states that virtually anything is possible, in practice you generally find that it’s dictats are wildly overestimated; which does not make for very interesting television, but does ensure a sound nights sleep!