Aerial graffiti

One of the few benefits of Covid-19 was the massive decline in the number of aircraft spewing filth into our upper atmosphere and thereby hastening global warming in a uniquely direct and effective way. And one of the depressing consequences of the semi-triumph over Covid has been holidaymakers and others flocking back to air travel. The evidence for the latter was on display one morning recently when I gazed up at the aerial graffiti on display in the blue sky above me. Each vapour trail (contrail) is evidence of water condensing to form ice crystals around small particles of soot from the aircraft engines. These trails have been described as "one of the few manifestations of man-made climate change agents that you can actually observe".

 photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Magnolia stellata

The few upsides of global warning aren't given much prominence when the subject is under discussion because the downsides are so cataclysmic. However, they do exist and one of them relates to the many magnolias growing in UK gardens. Each year their showy flowers appear in March, and each year along come frosts that turn their white and pink tinged petals to a disfiguring brown. The increasingly mild springs we are experiencing in the UK, brought about by global warming, will mean we are more likely to enjoy their beauty throughout the weeks they are in bloom. I paused on a recent walk to photograph this inviting Magnolia stellata as it reached over a garden wall.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2