- The Guardian
Wednesday 24 July 2019 33
A safari park
has given its
elephants an
ice model of
themselves to
keep cool in
the heatwave.
Woburn safari
park is also
using the 400kg
sculpture to
stimulate the
elephants’
natural foraging
behaviour and
curiosity.Is buying a
‘smart nappy’
really such a
clever idea?
D
o you remember when the weather was a reliable
source of innocuous small talk? “Hot today, isn’t
it?” you would observe to a colleague as you stood
awkwardly in the lift together. They would reply with
something about the garden needing rain, then you
would go back to ignoring each other. Talking about
the weather was uncontroversial. It was safe. It was oddly soothing.
Sadly, there is nothing soothing about the weather any more; every
day seems to bring new record-breaking temperatures or extreme
conditions. June was the hottest month recorded on Earth; July is on
course to break that record. The Arctic is having a sweltering summer
that has spark ed unprecedented wildfi res. According to the World
Meteorological Organization, these fi res emitted as much carbon
dioxide in one month as the whole of Sweden does in a year.
As large sections of the Arctic burn, major cities sizzle. New York,
where I live, has just emerged from a heatwave that the mayor
declared a “local emergency”. The city’s infrastructure, which is
held together by chewing gum and rat droppings at the best of times,
buckled under the strain of millions of heaving air conditioners,
leaving more than 46,000 New Yorkers without power on Sunday.
Now it is Europe’s turn to swelter; the Met Offi ce says temperatures
could reach 3 7C (9 9F) in London on Thursday.
What makes this extreme weather even more uncomfortable is
the grim realisation that we have done this to ourselves. The climate
crisis has made heatwaves the new normal. According to scientists
at the Crowther Lab in Switzerland, nearly 80% of cities will undergo
dramatic climate changes by 2050 ; London, for example, will feel
like Barcelona does today. Residents of cities such as Jakarta and
Singapore, meanwhile, will experience “unprecedented climate
conditions” characterised by extreme rainfall and severe droughts.
As the implications of the climate crisis become impossible to
ignore, many of us are growing increasingly terrifi ed. The climate
emergency isn’t just damaging the planet ; it is also harming our
mental health – a phenomenon called “ eco-anxiety ”. As Alexandria
Harris wrote in her 2015 book Weatherland , “small alterations in
familiar places can disturb us more than dystopian visions ”. I spent
every summer of my childhood shivering on damp Cornish beaches
and can’t quite wrap my head around England’s heatwaves. I feel a
sense of bereavement for an England that seems to be disappearing;
on a climate level, the place I grew up in is starting
to feel like a diff erent country. Indeed, Harris said in
her book that “the years to come ... may be the last
years of English weather ”.
We need to signifi cantly change our behaviour
and, even more importantly, overhaul our
economic system. After all, only 100 companies are
responsible for 71% of global emissions. You know
all this already; we all do. But our politicians still are
not taking meaningful action. Capitalism is carrying
on with business as usual. The world is literally
on fi re – and it feels as though we are fi ddling
with paper straws while it burns.Peppa Pig is an enormous star – and I mean that
literally. A Twitter user called @Memeulous recently
went viral after posting a screenshot of a Google
search for “peppa pig height” that states the cartoon
character is 7ft 1 in (2.2 metres) tall. This is the same
size as the basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal – and
a very odd height for a cartoon pig. Unfortunately for
the NBA, however, it seems @Memeulous was probably
spreading Photoshopped porkies. Peppa is yet to
comment on the controversy.This week’s instal ment of
innovations no one was waiting for
is brought to you by Pampers, which
has announced a “smart napp y”
system. Lumi consists of a sensor
that you stick to a specially designed
nappy; the gizmo then beams
information about how much your
little bub is peeing and sleeping to a
dedicated app. You can complement
this with a video monitor that links to
the app and tracks room temperature
and humidity. Voilà : your
embarrassingly low-tech baby is now
a sophisticated analytics machine.
If you can’t wait to start a more
data-driven relationship with your
newborn, I am afraid to say there is
no word on when Lumi will launch
in the UK (it arrives in the US this
autumn). If you are in South Korea,
however, you can grab some Huggies
smart nappies ; these let you know,
via Bluetooth, whether your baby
has urinated or defecated. A truly
brilliant update to the obsolete
technology known as “your nose”.
Smart nappies are just one of a
growing range of products aimed
at quantifying your baby. There are
smart baby socks , smart cribs and
smart feeding bottles. Basically,
there is smart everything.
Just how smart it is to share
your kid’s personal data with a
private company is another matter.
It is worth noting that Pamper s’
smart nappies were developed in
partnership with Verily, which is
part of Google’s parent company,
Alphabet. According to the
Washington Post, Google reached
a settlement last week with U S
authorities after an investigation
found that it improperly collected
the data of children who used
YouTube. And that is just the tip
of the iceberg when it comes to
the security implications. Surely
parenting is hard enough without
having to worry if a hacker has
broken into your kid’s nappy?The world is on fi re,
but it’s business as
usual for politicians
Tall tales about
Peppa Pig
Ar wa
Mahdawi
PHOTOGRAPHS: MIA WILLIAMSON/SWNS; PATRICK BERNING/THE GUARDIAN; GETTY COVER: GETTY
your strength properly with other
poses,” she says. “Then, when
you feel ready, I would start with
a handstand against a wall, or using
props that take the weight off your
neck. Always make sure you’re
practising with an experienced
friend or instructor.”
When you are ready for
a headstand, make sure
your back is straight, your
elbows are aligned with your
shoulders, your forearms
angled behind your head and
your fi ngers interlaced around
the back of your neck, says
Adam Hocke, a yoga teacher.
“There’s a real meditative
focus to achieving the
headstand,” he says. “It
gives you a new perspective
and it is calming to have
the heart above the head.”
Hocke cautions against
kicking up into the pose too
forcefully and placing too
much weight directly on
to the neck.
“These celebrity poses
are a great way to get
people into yoga,” Hocke
says. “But I wish more
accounts would show the
basic poses and work that
goes into achieving these
inversions. You can get the
same eff ect just by bringing
your legs up against a wall.
Anyone can do it and it
shows that the hardest
poses aren’t always the
most benefi cial.”
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eriencedy for
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says
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eSecond , many women do, in an
undefi ned way, want to try sleeping
with another woman. So it piques
their interest when someone else is
at it. And as a bonus third reason:
women are fetishised. So two women
equals ... well, you do the maths.
The real confusion is what defi nes
a “girl kiss”? It certainly feels deeply
out of touch, like something Jacob
Rees-Mogg would say, if he could
imagine such a thing in the musty
cavern of his mind.
Who knows why Mel B said this
about Bunton and Willoughby –
maybe she was trying to give lesbians
a touch of Willoughby’s daytime TV
wholesomeness, or perhaps she was
trying to shift some of the heat after
her own claims of sleeping with her
bandmate Geri Horner in the 90s,
with Horner dismissing reports of
a relationship as “simply not true”.
Or maybe she was hinting that she
would like to start a new girl-on-girl
band. One thing’s for sure: one girl
kiss does not a lesbian make.
Hanna HanraSay
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