The Met Office has been busy predicting the future - up to 2099.
Not the cross my palm with silver, you will have a long happy life sort of prediction. The weather sort. It's a double-edged sword of a prediction that follows the forewarned is forearmed theory. Full details have not yet been released but the summary I've seen warns of unbearably hot summers in London (41C or 105F), failing food crops around the Capital and rising tide levels flooding some areas of the city. Insurers are going to have so much fun with this information.
Remember this is a prediction, and who can forget Michael Fish scoffing at predictions of hurricanes. But, the Met Office is deadly serious so we need to look closely at their work and see what can be done to manage the problems they're highlighting. It will mean being more water conscious, managing our landscape to cope with heavy downpours and creating space to store water for times of need. Our work places and homes will need to be adapted to keep heat out in summer and warmth in in winter and to make maximum use of every drop of water.
For wildlife, we'll need to ensure there is ample cover, food and water. Planting more trees and shrubs and replacing concrete with plants will all help. The extra plants will also help catch and slow down run-off from heavy downpours and the subsequent evaporation of water from tree canopies will help make the air cooler. Power generation and transport will all have to radically change, but the technology is there to do all of this. The political and financial wherewithal is what's lacking.
Urban farming will become more common and partly essential. Shops will sell salad from window boxes, cabbages and peppers from local flowerbeds. There are lots of big and small things we can do to make our futures easier. There's so much carbon dioxide in the environment that a certain amount of change is unavoidable. The trick is to meet that change in a way that is affordable; environmentally, socially and financially.
Our own research has shown that bird species will change. Some species will find it uncomfortable and they'll move northwards to find more hospitable climes. If we get regular droughts then we can say goodbye to the traditional water and wetland species that have favoured the southeast. We're extremely concerned about lapwings. But nature is never static. It's always changing. We'll see equally amazing species arriving, such as hoopoes.
My biggest concern is that the doom-laden news due from the Met Office, which is to be unveiled by Hilary Benn later this week, doesn't leave us with a sense of inevitability and a lack of motivation. Understanding and working with nature is key to tackling climate change.