Snow Business: 1

Snow seems to have become increasingly sporadic and insignificant over recent years. I remember thinking that, here on the South Coast, we might not see proper snow again. And then last year it snowed twice. And, after the last lot, it just seemed to keep on snowing, with all the disruption which followed. Proving that it’s important to distinguish the cause, global warming, from the effect, climate change. Recently the media have been full of tales of high emission Chelsea Tractors delivering supplies to snow bound pensioners: proof that owning an urban 4x4 requires a driving licence and an irony bypass. More to the point, how about snow showing the meaning of local? Resilience? Car dependency? What price the drive to the supermarket when snow means you can’t get there any more? Making the choice to live without a car means that we buy local - during the snow-bound weekend, there were queues outside our shops as the habitually car-bound went where their feet would take them. If you’re normally a car shopper, see the snow as practice for the time when the end of cheap oil means you won’t be able to afford the drive. And keep going to your local shops. Otherwise, the next time you need them, they may not be there.