Fire

The smoke from this fire in Hemel Hempstead has just reached us here in Felixstowe, Suffolk. It was a bright sunny day and now, within seconds, a cloud of smoke has hit the town.
The cause and the full affects of this disaster have yet to be revealed, but perhaps we should ponder on just one aspect as the great and good fly away from the Montreal conference on the environment.
This was just one fuel depot, containing enough for the local area, a smudge upon the earth's surface. Unusually we see the effect of burning that fuel. Normally we let it dribble from the exhausts of our vehicles, stream away from our air-conditioning units, puffball white fluffy clouds from our power stations. Here, today, we see it concentrated as it burns away.
Here, in Felixstowe, at least 100 miles away from the scene the smoke is preventing us from going outside.
Clean air is vital to us all, and the sooner we find an alternative to burning fossils fuels the better.