Extreme weather is commonly seen as a product of climate change. But it is also becoming a significant driver of the crisis, a new report suggests. In its annual review of global energy trends, BP calculates that global demand for energy grew by 2.9% last year – the biggest rise since 2010 – and that a significant factor in this was the number of much colder and hotter days than normal, which led to a greater use of air conditioners, fans and heaters.

As a result of this additional energy usage, carbon emissions rose by 2% – faster than in any year since 2011, and roughly the carbon equivalent of having 400 million more cars on the roads. Spencer Dale, BP’s chief economist, warned of a “worrying vicious cycle: increasing levels of carbon emissions leading to more extreme weather patterns, which in turn trigger stronger growth in energy and carbon emissions”.

While the report acknowledges the “extraordinary growth” in renewable energy – up 14.5% last year – it argues that to tackle climate change we must also find ways of making fossil fuels, BP’s product, less damaging. The oil and gas multinational has called for countries to switch from coal-generated power to gas (which produces fewer emissions), and for more government investment in carbon capture technology, to eliminate the emissions from the flues of power plants before they reach the air. (The Week, 22 June 2019).

Did I read this correctly?  One of the big fossil fuel producers, BP, which has fought the idea that its product is responsible for global climate change with every means in its power, now wants greater use of the very natural gas it now produces ( of course) and wants us, the public, to invest in carbon capture from power plants to make its own product harmless.  Excuse me – but they produce the product that results in the emissions; they should pay for the carbon capture, big time.  Talk about shameless cheek!

A new non-invasive MRI scan for prostate cancer could “revolutionise” diagnosis of the disease, scientists have claimed. Men in the UK aren’t screened for prostate cancer because the existing blood test – which looks for raised levels of the protein PSA – is unreliable. Most men with raised PSA levels don’t have cancer, but must have an invasive biopsy to establish this; the test misses around 10% of tumours; and it cannot distinguish slow-growing ones that don’t need treatment from the most aggressive kinds. The developers of the new ten-minute scan, which is being tested on 350 men this summer, claim it produces fewer “false positives” and can detect if the cancer is one that requires immediate treatment. Prof Mark Emberton, Dean of the UCL faculty of Medical Science, and one of the scientists trialling the test, said he hoped that the NHS would eventually adopt it as a routine screening tool.  (The Week, 22 June 2019)

This is very personal to me.  As far as I can establish every male among my ancestors for over two or three centuries appear to have died of prostate cancer, including (definitely) my father and grandfather.  It is a genetic inheritance, and I am the first to survive it, thanks to a good surgeon and modern medicine. It is, in my family’s case, diagnosed within the first six months of the 60th year – reliable as a clock.  But the biopsies are literally hit or miss, and I was told that the cancer is usuallh more aggressive in reality than the biopsies indicate.  This news gives me Epicurean peace of mind.  I have two sons, and it is reassuring to know about this advance in detection.  Who knows, by the time they are 60 prostate cancer could be detected harmlessly with an MRI and zapped with an injection?

Manaus, Brazil

The Vatican has opened the door to the possibility of married men becoming priests in remote parts of the Amazon basin. There is currently a drastic shortage of priests in the region – which extends across the borders of nine South American countries – and ministering to such a far-flung flock poses severe logistical challenges. Pope Francis first mooted the idea of ordaining viri probati (men of proven virtue) in remote communities two years ago. Now, the idea has been slated for discussion at the Amazon Synod, which is scheduled for October. The candidates for the priesthood should be “elderly men, preferably indigenous, respected and accepted members of their communities”, with grown-up families, says a document outlining the areas for discussion. Currently, the only married Roman Catholic priests are former Anglican priests who converted.  (The Week 22 June 2019)

Sounds to me like the beginning of an unavoidable change.  As candidates for the priesthood become fewer and fewer it seems inevitable that older, married men – and women – are accepted as priests.    And a good thing , too. I used to know an Anglican priest who was married, had worked for years for British Petroleum, and had become a vicar in middle age.  A wise man and a good listener. with a bit of charisma.  That’s what these churches need for pastoral work and for rebuilding congregations.  Not that, as a follower of Epicurus, I have any particular right to advise anyone about the policies of the Catholic church!