Predictably, I've heard a few people on buses, the Tube and in shops saying things along the lines of 'Global warming - we're having the coldest winter for decades!'.
But the amazing thing is that after two weeks of hearing nothing but climate change around the Copenhagen meeting, this subject has almost dropped out of the news. Have world leaders given up? What fevered discussions are taking place? How are they going?
Just a couple of reminders:
18 December 2009 - Remarks of President Barack Obama in Copenhagen, Denmark
'Good morning. It’s an honor to for me to join this distinguished group of leaders from nations around the world. We come together here in Copenhagen because climate change poses a grave and growing danger to our people. You would not be here unless you – like me – were convinced that this danger is real. This is not fiction, this is science. Unchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies, and our planet. That much we know.
So the question before us is no longer the nature of the challenge – the question is our capacity to meet it. For while the reality of climate change is not in doubt, our ability to take collective action hangs in the balance.
I believe that we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of this common threat. And that is why I have come here today.'
and
19 December 2009 - Gordon Brown in Copenhagen, Denmark
"I am now going to lead a campaign around the world with other countries for the legally binding treaty that is the obvious next stage from this."
Gordon Brown says he will lead a campaign for a legally binding treaty on climate change
"We've got, for the first time, agreement about the limits to which we can allow emissions to go."
The prime minister said he expected all countries to agree to the 2C limit for 2050.
Mr Brown also said every country would now be expected to produce a national emissions plan that would be open to "international scrutiny".
"It is the first time anything global like this has been agreed. Kyoto was not global - it was only a number of countries that signed up," said the prime minister.
He said once countries publish their plans in the coming weeks it would become clear that "it is a major number of gigatonnes that are being reduced in carbon emissions".
Nightjar - Agreed! And the current EU and UK policies on biofuels will lead to more rainforest destruction!
Boris - very glad you have signed our Letter to the Future - thanks.
Sooty - an interesting idea that there may be some bigger influence on both woodland and farmland birds. Climate change may become that factor. But right now we know a lot about which actions will reverse farmland bird declines - we've done it at Hope Farm. So doing farming in a more environmentally friendly way is the way forward! We're not yet sure what the right actions will be for woodland birds - although we have some ideas and are working on this issue.
Seems to me that the politics are that Obama (and the rest of the world) were humiliated by the Chinese who wrecked any solution (rather than deal- the difference you pointed out, Mark), I hope he won't retreat to his domestic agenda (health care etc). Gordon Brown said some good things but needs to back it up with action. Will be interesting to see if this happens especially as we now seem to be in full election build up.
Agree with Nightjar on rainforests, although RSPB appears to be doing great things in Sumatra this really is a global issue that needs serious funding from the Governments in the developed world to make it happen. That's one of the reasons I've signed RSPB's letter to the future.
Two things: first, as the meteorologists keep stressing climate and weather are quite different things - global temperature is still rising inexorably despite the present cold weather. Second, climate change outcomes are quite unpredictable - Britain is particularly susceptible to changes in the big ocean currents and a switch in the Gulf Stream could leave us shivering rather than making wine.
A really big plus for me from Copenhagen- and I really hope its followed through - has been the rapidly increasing profile of rainforest destruction. Generating more carbon into the atmosphere than the US, saving the rainforest is a real win-win - even, if as the cynics keep pointing out, it will be difficult to achieve. But the benefits are enormous: paying to keep trees standing could help some of the poorest, most vulnerable people in the world and preserve biodiversity we don't yet even know we have, as well as dramatically reducing emissions. It isn't even about the demand for natural resources from the industrialised world - over 90% of the industrial timber used by the developed world is already produced from timber plantations covering little more than 5% of the world's forest area.
Hi Mark you know that I think it is the usual political talk of sounding good and no real intention of doing anything.
I have a question though and you may have some ideas on it.
I wonder if seeing as woodland birds are in decline similar to farmland birds the farmland bird decline perhaps not all down to intensive farming but perhaps something more sinister affecting both farmland birds and woodland birds as surely intensive farming can't be blamed for decline in woodland birds.