Have you ever heard of the big freeze of early 1895? I thought not and no, neither had I until I sat down with a book about past weather extremes.
December 1894 was unusually mild. So much so in fact, that it was precisely the sort of balmy winter that would lead to protesters hurling cans of soup at paintings and shrieking headlines. Even chrysanthemums were flowering in Herefordshire at Christmas.
However, it all changed in January 1895 when the cold started. A vast mass of freezing air had locked itself down over Britain, preventing the mild low-pressure cyclones from pushing up across the Atlantic. Within a few days widespread snow up to 10 inches (25 cm) deep but a fleeting thaw made it seem as if the worst was over.
It wasn’t. On January 23rd 1895 the cold was back and with a vengeance. It began with major thunderstorms followed by a howling gale from the northwest that tore off roofs and ripped up trees while dumping a fresh round of snow. By January 25th a train leaving Wick was buried under 25 ft (7.6 m) of snow.
The snow spread further south, to be followed by plunging temperatures. At Braemar by February 11th it was down to —17°F (—27°C). The same day Buxton in Derbyshire clocked —11°F (—24°C). London was almost mild by comparison. At Beddington near Croydon on February 7th an almost pleasant —2°F (—19°C) was recorded.
The massive freeze ended river navigation. Ships were stuck fast, and cargoes could be neither loaded nor unloaded. The Manchester Ship Canal was solid ice and resisted all attempts to break it up.
The result was also mass unemployment, a catastrophe at a time when there were no benefits and workers could be laid off at the drop of a hat. Farm labourers were laid off because the land was like concrete. Fishermen obviously couldn’t work and had no income, to say nothing of the fish that no-one could now eat (and at a time when the British fishing industry was enormous).
Glasgow became a city of soup kitchens and starving families with tens of thousands of unemployed men. In order to keep the gas works operating on the Old Kent Road a special team had to be organised to be on duty round the clock smashing the ice on the river so that coal could be brought in. That eventually created an ice wall 10 ft (3 m) high and two miles (3.2 km) long.
The frost penetrated two foot (61 cm) underground shattering water mains in the south and even deeper in the north.
By February 14th the Serpentine in London had 9.5 in (24 cm) of ice and a 600-strong battalion of Grenadier Guards performed manoeuvres on it.
It was, in short, a late Victorian Beast from the East. It lasted most of the month and began only gradually to abate in the latter part of February, but Glasgow’s harbour remained blocked by ice until well into March, with another cold snap temporarily halting the thaw.
According to the BMJ for April that year deaths from respiratory diseases in February nearly tripled:
The effect of the cold on the public health was noticeable, especially in the increased mortality among children and old people. The increase in the number of deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs was first notable in the return for the week ending February 2nd, and a month later the weekly number of deaths from these causes was 1,448, or 945 above the average.
That’s more than three times as many deaths than normal from respiratory conditions. There’s no mention of the others who just froze to death.
The meteorological conditions that prevailed in 1895 were far from unique. They were a function of Britain’s location. They had occurred before and have happened since, for example in 2018, even if 1895 was exceptionally bad.
The interesting question though is how will 21st century Britain cope if 1895 happens again, especially in the utopian landscape of Net Zero? We live in an astronomically more complicated world. And it will happen again. The only real question is when?
It’s not hard to imagine the devastating consequences on the supply food chain as every electric delivery vehicle grinds to a halt, its battery rendered lifeless by the temperatures, to say nothing of the deadened solar farms. Indeed, the wholesale economic devastation that could be caused by compromising the electrical supply is too awful to contemplate. Back in 1895 that simply didn’t matter.
We also have today a vastly greater elderly population, many of whom are totally dependent on medication and support to keep them alive during their 80s and 90s. With so few homes now unable to accommodate open fires, the reliance on electric heating to keep them warm will be exposed as catastrophically vulnerable. As it is, many of the elderly who live on their own already cannot afford to heat their homes even through the recent years of mild winters.
And what would happen to the hospitals? As the sick and elderly piled up outside the doors of A&E the creaking NHS edifice would collapse. The death rates of 1895 would look like a mouse breaking wind in a hurricane by comparison.
The main point is it’s not so much that the weather has changed (regardless of what anyone thinks about that or by how they measure it, or what the causes are) because it’s always changed, but that our world has altered beyond imagination since 1895. In some respects, we seem more in control than ever before of our environment, but the truth is that we are actually more vulnerable than we have ever been: every aspect of our existence now hangs by an electronic thread.
Worse, we seem dead set on making ourselves as vulnerable as possible. Moreover, our expectations of the state have exploded. Back in 1895, people were rather more self-sufficient, because they had to be.
Perhaps the next Government, whomever it’s formed by, will have ‘top people working on it’. Perhaps the chancers who run our lives will strike lucky and it will all pan out as we march joyously into the promised land where the sun always shines on solar farms and the battery is always charged. But I wouldn’t bank on that. It only has to happen once, and the whole house of cards will be flattened. Just like the batteries.
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ICC issues a demand that Sir Winston Churchill be disinterred and put on trial for defying the National SOCIALISTS.
Hahahaha! This could happen!!
Absolutely. New research shows he authorized an attack on peace-loving Germany.
Dresden, Cologne, Hamburg… thousand bomber raids = genocide.
War is a dirty business. You quote three attacks. The German people weren’t rounded up and put to death by their millions. The merits of mass bombing on population centres in terms of the duration of the war can be discussed both ways. Genocide, it wasn’t.
It was a planned genocide which didn’t work out as the planners had hoped because it took them too long to master the technology to a sufficient degree to accomplish what they had hope to achieve. There was no reason to round anyone up as people were simply targetted in their homes in densely populated areas after someone had figured out that these would “burn well.”
The military merits of aerial mass slaughter of civilians to break their morale don’t need to be discussed. In cases the necessity of a land campaign until almost all of Germany had been occupied didn’t already make this clear, US “morale bombing” in total overdrive, followed by a hasty withdrawal from the war theatre in SE Asia has answered this question: There are no military benefits.
Apart from that, intentional mass slaughter of civilians is a war crime. Intentional destruction of civilian infrastructure to accomplish mass slaughter of civilians (the dambustet raids) is a war crime. And firebombing of cities to accomplish mass slaughter of civilians is a war crime as well.
There are also a few million German civilians who fell victim to Russian ethnic cleansing of eastern middle Europe.
About time the Israeli genocidal maniacs were arrested.
As I type this the ‘votes’ on GlassHalfFull‘s comment: thumbs up show minus 3 and the thumbs down show minus eight. I have no idea what minus 3 thumbs up means or how it can be done.
I once ‘liked’ somebody’s comment and it stayed on zero. People have pointed the mystery of the thumbs out before. It’s further evidence to me how pointless they are because they don’t even function properly and change/influence absolutely nothing. Most sane DS subscribers will be back posting what they want, whenever they want, irrespective of how many little red/green numbers they collect, so why have them in the first place?
The only thing I like your comment is that you and your up-voters are funding the DS.
Why?
You don’t seem to be gaining any agreement here at least.
Well here we are again. It is a regrettable loss of lives, but genocide it isn’t. The maniacs are Hamas and Hezbollah who indoctrinate their kids and put AK47’s in their hands, and dynamite around their waists. Don’t bother replying…
It’s my duty to reply to correct your falsehoods.
Even Jewish experts on genocide and the holocaust agree that Israel is committing “genocide”.
●”It is no longer possible to deny that Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions”
Professor Bartov, a former IDF soldier, is considered one of the world’s leading specialists on the subject of genocide.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/13/israel-gaza-historian-omer-bartov
●”Yes, it is genocide. This is exactly what genocide looks like”
Amos Goldberg, professor of Holocaust History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, wrote the following article about the situation in Gaza for an Israeli online magazine.
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/prof-amos-goldberg-yes-it-is-genocide/
●”A textbook case of genocide”
Raz Segal is an Israeli who is Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Endowed Professor in the Study of Genocide
https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide
A range of views are available, but cutting and pasting stuff from naysayers on the internet isn’t changing my mind. I believe the Israeli’s have got this right, and that the ICC is nothing more than another do-good court acting beyond its remit. Please dont reply. I wont be posting again on this thread.
Yes there is attempted genocide – by Hamas and Hezbollah trying to erase Israel from the map.
Is this deja vu? What happened with the last arrest warrant?
These kids haven’t got a hope in hell of turning out like decent human beings when they attend UNRWA Jihadi School, have they? Indoctrinated to hate from birth and doomed, courtesy of their Jew-obsessed death cult, destined to be like one of their terrorist, psycho heroes. Sad;
”EXPOSED: We have obtained exclusive interviews of Palestinian students revealing what they learn in UNRWA schools. Meet Mohammad: “The solution for Jerusalem? We kill the Jews. We get rid of the Jews. Inshallah, Jews will be wiped out from all of Palestine by the grace of Allah.”
https://x.com/HillelNeuer/status/1859550369967223197
https://x.com/KenBelt3/status/1859567580706439326
Here are your darling Israeli Jews singing the following (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvTyg1kJGzM):
Let the IDF win and f*** the Arabs,
Ole, ole, ole, ole,
Why is school out in Gaza?
There are no children left there.
The amazing thing was the Jews obviously have such a clout in our media world that they managed to turn the hooliganism in Amsterdam around so as to depict the Israeli perpetrators as the victims! And everybody fell for it – or was told to fall for it.
And here again is the wonderful IDF dressing up in sexy panties and generally having a ball blowing up people’s houses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEo813rYm8g.
The day before yesterday Israel bombed Damascus and yesterday Palmyra (also Syria), all in addition to all of Lebanon, not to mention at home in Gaza.
All in the name of self-defence?!
Of course, this is in addition to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where the IDF is assisting (other) criminal gangs in stealing humanitarian aid deliveries so that they can sell the materials at extortionate prices to the starving Palestinians.
And we are supposed to praise all Jews? Can you inform me why?
Israel has been at war with Syria for decades, I think it might date from 1948.
I am being unfair since not all Jews will support the Israeli actions. But AIPAC has all US politicians in its pocket and apparently a rich Jewish lady donated $100 million to the Trump campaign, which will ensure a strong pro-Israel presidency. Netanyahu has nothing to fear.
Yes i can…… Zionist indoctrination….
By judging them for defending Israel from self-confessed genocidal terrorists, they condemn themselves.
So will the leadership of Hamas be on the warrant list any time soon, in relation to the events of October 7th 2023?
Also still waiting (unexpectantly) for Tony Blair to join the list one day..
Now can we have arrest warrants for Putin & Zelensky for Genocide Against Slavs, and for assassinating political opponents?
And arrest warrants for Lula & Moraes for crimes against the Brazilian People, attempted assassination of the true leader Jair Bolsonaro, and arranging a Fake Coup, just like Erdogan did in Turkey, as an excuse to arrest military patriots?
And arrest warrants for Tony Blair & Gordon Brown?
That’ll do for a start…
In other news: ICC’s latest report says the holocaust was also perpetrated by the Jews. Calls for reparations to be paid to Germany to redress the historical injustice.
Signed by committee chairman B.E. Zebub
I guess I’m asking myself the same question many others are too:
Why not Blair and Bush for their illegal invasion of Iraq which has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions, or Obama for drone strikes all over the middle east, or Cameron and Sarkozy for bombing Libya and overthrowing the government leading to the deaths of thousands. Or Xi Jingpin for the arbitrary internment of hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs in western China.
Eventually these contradictions become impossible to ignore.
Oh well that will dissapoint all the war loving, pro- pointless death and destruction zealots on here… And thats about all of them….
Always surprising how many deranged folks there are around….
And if you’re going to respond…. Prove the point that it isnt pointless……….
Its quite clear to any sane person that Israel want the Palestinians gone…….
https://fb.watch/v-dftjxTJA/
All reactionaries are paper tigers. Like being savaged by a dead sheep.
I think the Israeli Ministers will manage to survive it.
Why is Tony Blair not wanted by the ICC for war crimes?
The smell of Anti Semitism is very strong,
Will Xi of China also get an arrest warrant?
He has comitted crimes.