Temperatures in the Mediterranean have reached nearly 110 F in a continuing, dangerous, and unprecedented heat wave.

Many politicians now fear the Mediterranean coast may soon become too hot to sustain a viable tourist industry. ‘The Mediterranean climate of this country no longer exists. It is changing, perhaps even faster than we expected,’ said Michalis Petrakis, director of Greece’s Institute of Environmental Research at the National Observatory in Athens.

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Wood, a Christian from Wales, asks, why does The Religious Right in the US squeal so loudly about being persecuted when in reality they are “completely in bed with the most powerful government on Earth, ” have serious financial resources, and control media conglomerates?

And yet, this voice continually reminds everyone how it’s actually on the margins. It claims that it’s a beleaguered minority, a faithful remnant beset on all sides by the hostile forces of the world.

Tell you what, lads — go hang out with some Christians in Myanmar, or Bhutan, or Armenia, or Saudi Arabia, or Palestine, or North Korea and then tell me you’re being persecuted.

The crux of the problem is, he continues, that Christianity was meant to be an outsider religion, for the underdog and the weak.

If we’re not poor and marginalised, what are we doing wrong? Do we go out of our way to become marginalised? Do we do something radical and give all our stuff away and live in a community like that one in Sheffield? Do we give it all up and risk our lives — perhaps even losing them — ministering to people far away who do not know us or care for us?

Maybe we do. Maybe Christendom is so bankrupt that it’s our only alternative.

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It now appears that it’s not just the squirrels. We reported here recently on the capture by Iran of squirrels equipped with espionage devices. It’s much worse than that. Attack badgers, cyborg pigeons, and who knows what else.

From the bowels of some hellish US counter-terrorism entity comes the Autonomous Coordinated Organic Reconnaissance Network. Be scared, be very scared.

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This was the hottest day ever recorded in Belgrade. Fifty forest fires right, left and center. Hundreds of dead reported in Hungary. State of Emergency in Greece. What next? Oh, the specter of famine.

“Yes, but what effective action can we take TODAY for this long-neglected problem?” That’s simple: we can bury the dead.

The BBC reports 30% of Serbia’s annual harvest has been destroyed as that hundreds of forest fires are burning in Greece. In Macedonia, a forest fire ignited mines and weapons that have been buried since WWI.

Then there’s the invasion of stinging jellyfish in the Mediterranean, attracted by the  now-warmer water.

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In places such as Manhattan and Los Angeles, restaurants and bars outdo themselves in excess. New York’s Algonquin Hotel has a $10,000 ‘martini on a rock’ (it comes with a diamond at the bottom of the glass). City eateries sell burgers for more than $50. One offers a $1,000 omelette. In Los Angeles there is a craze for Bling mineral water - at $90 a bottle.The growth of such a large super-rich class, coupled with a deepening poverty in many communities, is starting to tear at the fabric of society.

Even some of the most wealthy - like Gates and Buffett - have spoken openly of the needs to address the massive ‘inequality gap’ that they have come to exemplify. In effect, some of the very richest Americans are calling for themselves to be taxed. In a speech last month Buffett - the third richest man in the world - pointed out that his tax rate was 17.7 per cent of his income while his secretary was taxed at 30 per cent. ‘Many of the new super-rich are looking long term at the world and they see a collapsing US education system and health-care system and the disappearance of the middle class and they realise: this is bad for everybody,’

The traditional ways such excesses end is by depression or an upset of the established social order.

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