The difference between climate and weather (From Winsford Guardian)

The difference between climate and weather

1:30pm Sunday 31st January 2010

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JUST because the temperature drops for a few weeks, why do so many people claim that climate change isn’t happening? Do they not understand the difference between ‘weather’ and ‘climate’?

In any case, the Met Office points out that the unusual cold spell we have experienced has been balanced by unusual hot spells in other parts of the globe.

The temperature in Athens on New Year’s Day reached 30C, an all-time record for this time of year. Australia has just experienced its hottest night-time temperatures. Our human race has difficulty taking into account changes that do not occur instantaneously. World population has trebled in 50 years, and continues to grow by 200,000 every day, yet we rarely notice the changes this brings about. With so many more people needing access to energy, and the increased burning of fossil fuels releasing more and more carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, the wonder to me is not that climate change is taking place, but that it is not occurring even more quickly.

The UN climate change conference in Copenhagen failed to secure an agreement to make the changes necessary if we are to prevent world temperatures rising, but every government present accepted that climate change is taking place. It will render parts of our planet uninhabitable and result in the forced migration of millions of people. We failed last month, but we have a duty to our grandchildren to find a new way forward.

CHRIS DAVIES MEP Liberal Democrat, North West

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