Cold

My generation has always lived with a sense of apocalypse. We have never lived with a hopeful future, a sense that things would be better. When I was young the threat was seen to be from the Russians and from nuclear war, a short and unimaginably violent conflict which in minutes would destroy human life as we know it. This threat is supposed to have receded with the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, although the situation is not as clear as it was and there are more unstable states with nuclear weapons than before. Now the immediate perceived threat is from terrorism, especially 'Islamist' terrorism, and the longer darkness of global warming.

I sometimes do not believe in cold. Old people have no faith in heat, and will wrap up on warm days and mutter about it not lasting. They remember a time without central heating, without reliable and controllable warmth. But it is the cold I do not believe in, the cold I have no long-term faith in. Is it warmer during the winters now than it used to be? Are we facing a future where the cold retreats to extremes - Arctic theme parks - and skiiing in Europe is a thing of the past? Nobody knows. Here we had a cold winter, colder than I am used to, with fortnights of subzero temperatures and a cold snap of minus eight centigrade for a night or two. But a future without appreciable cold terrifies me.