Day 317 - Global Warming

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One of the most striking and consistent things we’ve picked up on during our year away is that all over the world people offer evidence of the effects of global warming. Weather plays an important part in so many lives, and generations have been brought up with the knowledge of local seasonal patterns like the start of the rainy season and so on. And they all report that these patterns have suddenly broken down in the past few years, adding an extra layer of uncertainty to their lives. Now, we’re not about to turn into Al Gore, although we did like his film, but today we felt the impact of these climatic changes.

The trip we’re making could never be described as easy - it’s not a well-travelled route into Tibet at the best of times - but in the rainy season (June, July, August) it becomes a pretty stupid thing to attempt. However in eastern Tibet is has rained literally non-stop for almost a week now, which probably means the rainy season has come early. Driving along narrow dirt tracks that cling to the side of mountains in the rain is not for the faint-hearted, but there’s a bigger problem from incessant rain which is landslides. We spent the day passing debris all over the road, from small pebbles to rocks that would do serious damage if they landed on us. But it kind of added to the fun, and the slow progress whilst landslides had to be cleared didn’t really bother us. Some of the scenery was just incredible, especially the purple rock whatever that might have been.

At 5pm, with a good few hours driving ahead of us, we came across an army truck performing an Austin Powers-style 3-point turn, with a display of organisational skills that would give comfort to any watching US Army generals. Once past this, we realised why they were turning round - a car-sized rock was sitting on the track ahead leaving no room at all to get through. We had to abandon our planned destination and retreated down the mountain to find somewhere to spend the night, not a straightforward matter in a land where we pass a tiny village once every 2 or 3 hours. As it turned out, we were in our room just after 6pm, freezing cold with no electricity and fading light, so we just went to bed and heard the first traffic come through at about 9pm.

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Comments

[Paul]

Are rocks interesting?
If they are and your purple rocks were bluish then they could well be blueschist a sodium based mineral formed as tectonic plates move. I believe there is much of this in Tibet.