Pakistan and Russia: consequences of climate change?

The BBC "Today" programme yesterday talked about the exceptional monsoon rains in Pakistan with a one day dump of rain in excess of the previous worst monthly figure! The situation is dire with even worse news today about the millions effected. I welcome news of the appeals being launched to raise funds....however what caught my attention on the radio was the next item about a sudden 50% increase in world grain prices due to shortages caused by the exceptionally hot summer in Russia and Ukraine.....

Now as we know we can't blame one particular event on climate change but I am sure it could have been useful to link these two - they are precisely in line with predictions of the consequences of climate change. Now this morning they were talking of the unprecedented wildfires in Russia due to the exceptionally hot and dry weather....and the largest ever hailstones in South Dakota (one was a kilo!!!). Is it that folk can't make the connection? Or won't make the connection?

I then to my surprise saw, that of all people, The Daily Mail had made the link! See their article here where they quote Met Office climate change scientist Peter Stott saying that the extreme weather patterns were not unexpected and in keeping with climate change theories: "What we have observed generally is a tendency for more heavy rain fall, a tendency towards a greater risk of flooding and also a greater risk of drought as well. These are consistent with what we know about climate change."

Anyway let me finish this hurried blog with news that the US climate sceptic lobbyists' had attempted to stop greenhouse gas emissions from being labelled as a pollutant - this has now been rejected by The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - see here. The EPA has powers under the Clean Air Act to push ahead with regulating greenhouse gas emissions from sources such as coal-fired power plants and industry. This is good news to see law being made to help make the changes we need.