We would all do well to listen to this. There is a connexion between the weather and the climate and that is why it rarely rains at the South Pole. The south polar climate is in general too cold for rainy weather. Weather is what happens on a short timescale and climate dictates the weather on a long timescale.
If the Antarctic ice cap melted completely it would have serious and noticeable effects on the weather in the southern hemisphere and its long term climate.
It is a scientific fact that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affects the climate. These facts were ascertained by scientists such as James Tyndall in the 19th century. Tyndall proved that there was a greenhouse effect caused by an increase to concentration of carbon dioxide and other gases such as methane in the atmosphere. Much of this proof was obtained by his work on absorption spectroscopy. He also ascertained that water vapour was the principal greenhouse gas in the Earth's atmosphere.
Svante Arrhenius was one of the first scientists to make the calculations regarding the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. He worked out that if the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doubled then there would be in increase of 5 to 6 degrees Celsius in surface temperatures on the Earth.
Equally, if the concentration of carbon dioxide were to be halved surface temperatures would be reduced.
Why cannot climate change deniers accept these facts? If we were to take measures on an industrial scale to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere completely we would have a catastrophe on our hands. Our atmosphere would freeze and so would the oceans; we would all die. No sane person would advocate that we did this.
Unfortunately, we are doing the exact reverse as we are pumping industrialised quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We are heating the planet up.
Much of the heat has gone into the oceans and warmer oceans mean more water vapour in the atmosphere and what does more water vapour do? It causes more rain and it also causes the atmosphere to heat up further. The additional energy in the atmosphere helps to generate more wind. We can expect more "abnormal" or "unusual" storms in the future. David Cameron's suspicion could easily become a dreadful reality.
I am not advocating that anyone should take any action to reduce their own emissions of carbon dioxide. I am only advocating that we at least admit that there might be a problem. We need to be aware that the climate is going to change and we need to take action to mitigate the problems of increased flooding and storms.
Nothing is going to be done to reduce our usage of fossil fuels. We will still have fracking and exploration of oil in the Arctic. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is going to double from what it was at the end of the last ice age and this will happen sooner than you think.
It will take a catastrophe which kills hundreds of thousands of people to make the human species sit up and take note but by then it could be too late.
So what can the people of the UK do to protect themselves from the floods? We could abandon such areas as the Somerset levels and evacuate everybody and leave it all to nature but the upheaval and distress caused would be unbearable.
We could learn some lessons from the indigenous people of South East Asia who live in areas of heavy rainfall. They build Kampung houses on stilts. These types of house are often built on the sea shore. We could do something similar on our flood plains.
We could also learn to work with nature instead of against it and restore deciduous forests to the hill side water catchment areas above and near the flood plains. I was amused to see that some local authorities were chopping down trees to damn up streams in the catchment areas to act as buffer systems to assist natural and gradual drainage. Beavers do this and it doesn't cost a penny.
It is as shame that we have chopped down nearly all of our forests and shot all the beavers; they could have provided cost free and very effective flood protection schemes. We have been very stupid not to have protected our environment and to have chopped down or killed any plant or animal which has got in our way.
We need to be more imaginative about how we treat our environment and we need both short term and realistic long term solutions. The use of the bulldozer, chain saw and shotgun (to kill beavers etc.) is no longer a solution.
We also need to listen to Prince Charles; for on this issue he is right. As a constitutional prospective Head of State and Monarch he is expected not to intervene in national politics. But the dangers of global climate change transcend national politics and I am glad that he has reminded us of our responsibility to protect our planet and our living space..
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