In The Grip

So Winter's finally got into gear over here following what UK weather forecasters have described as the warmest January in 15 years. Suddenly it's gone all arctic from this pretty mild start to the year, apparently due to a system of high pressure sitting over northern Europe and Russia. Woke up this morning to find that everything seemed to have a light sprinkling of castor sugar - an effect snow has of making things look more interesting that I even did a double take at a dog turd on the pavement (or was it because I was taking extra care not to fall foul of undercover canine treachery?).

No thoughts of making any epic dash for the bus this morning given slippery conditions, though a little jog might have warmed me up against the wind-chill factor. Froze my hand off on the tube holding onto a pole whilst standing up in the carriage aisle - my tube goes overland a few stops before it reaches my underground station but even so, those poles must be connected to something outside the train for them to conduct that much frost-bite induced pain.

So maybe we can look forward to a White Easter - the way the weather is these days I wouldn't be too surprised. Climate change is definitely our doing and possibly our ultimate undoing. There can only be so much abuse the planet can take before the damage is irreparable and no amount of political posturing and bickering at world summits will be able to prevent this. It's about time the World took responsibility and the so called leading industrialised nations which make up G8 should be showing the way.

Instead of merely paying lip-service to the public about these issues whilst remaining chiefly concerned about economic policy, these governments need to assemble structured plans of action as each day brings yet more evidence of the harm we are doing to our environment.