There is a little rhyme by Hilaire Belloc called The Garden Party that runs:
The Rich arrived in pairs
And also in Rolls Royces;
They talked of their affairs
In loud and strident voices.
The poor arrived in Fords,
Whose features they resembled;
They laughed to see so many Lords
And Ladies all assembled.
I always think of it when I hear of the Irish Meteorological Society's Annual One-Day Meeting. Always a society occasion in the wider sense, rivalling the Spring Show in its popularity, the event this year will be held in the Tara Tower Hotel in Dublin tomorrow, and its theme is nothing if not topical: Meteorology and Sustainable Development. Throughout the day the difficult balance between our planet's limited natural resources and the increasingly ambitious needs of its inhabitants will be discussed, with particular attention to the role of climate and weather.
The proceedings are free and begin at 10.30 a.m. with the time-honoured procedure known as registration. Essentially this means that you arrive some minutes early and submit a name or pseudonym, whichever suits your purpose. Then, with a cup of coffee in your hand, you may exchange a friendly word or two with old acquaintances whose names or pseudonyms may well escape you, and discuss your own sustainable, or long since unsustained, development.
Business proper, however, commences at 11 a.m. and this year is remarkable for the fact that not one of the speakers appears to be less qualified than Ph.D.
Prof Ted Farrell of UCD will first provide an overview of the wide and very complex subject matter, to be followed at noon by Dr Mills, who will tie it down a little by concentrating on Climate as a Natural Resource.
After lunch, there will be a review of environmentally sustainable techniques suitable for the building industry, for producing food, and for use in the commercial world in general. To this end the learned doctors Lewis, Culleton and Freyne will speak respectively of Architecture, Agriculture and Enterprise - all lecture titles, as befits the day, preceded by the word "sustainable". And finally the proceedings will end with a general discussion on these issues, which is billed to start at 3.30 p.m.
So if you have even a passing interest in such topics, and find yourself tomorrow one of Dublin's qui s'amuse as distinct from qui travaille, you may wish to repair to the Merrion Road and join the fun.