I’m heading to Brussels today, 24 hours earlier than planned, in the hope that the snow showers now forming over the Irish Sea will not impact too severely before my flight is due to take off from Dublin airport. EU Ideas Lab 2018 takes place for the second time in Brussels this Thursday March 1st until Saturday March 3rd in The Egg and for a second time I am the Event Moderator. Given that I have been working with the team over the past few months on the event and facilitation methodologies, it wouldn’t do if I got trapped in Dublin airport and was not able to be there!
The Egg, EU Ideas Lab, conference venue, Brussels
The Egg is a former industrial building that has been transformed as a conference venue. It has a great plenary hall and many other halls and rooms, which will be ideal for Ideas Lab, where participants will be working on large and small groups on their ideas, campaigns and policies. One concern I have is how well is the venue insulated as the temperatures in Brussels will also be very cold. That brings me to the weather..
This exceptional spell of remarkably cold weather has its origin as a result of a potent Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) that occurred almost two weeks ago and disrupted the Polar Vortex.
Sudden Stratospheric Warming February 2018
This event occurred in the troposphere (70,000ft to 90,000ft above the earth) and caused the temperatures over the north pole at that height to rise by about 50c in just one day! The effects of this then rippled down through the atmosphere and this (as it usually does) has led to a distortion of the Jet Stream, which has changed direction above us, switching from its normal west to east pattern, to an east to west one. This will facilitate a strong easterly flow across Europe and is bringing Siberian air to Ireland.
Although we in Ireland are now consumed with the difficulties that we will encounter with snow and freezing temperatures in the coming days. this SSW has also caused huge displacement of northern hemisphere air-masses. In addition to the Beast From The East, there is major Arctic warming with temperatures in the high Arctic exceeding 0c, the Eastern half of N. America has had record breaking highs & western N. America has had record cold. All very worrying and another global “call to action” to each and everyone of us to do everything in our power to tackle Climate Change. I’m honoured to be part of an event this week that will bring people from across Europe together with Climate Change at the heart of most topics on the agenda!
