Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury: It is difficult for us to comprehend the extremes of different climates that occur around the world. We are never satisfied with our weather – it is too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet, too windy........ but we never suffer the devastating hurricanes like Sandy, the one recently experienced in New York and the Eastern seaboard of the USA. The USA is a vast country which experiences extremes within its own boarders. Severe drought in some US states has seriously affected its food crops this year which has, in turn, affected the price and supply of food around the world. We have suffered extremes of weather to a much lesser degree this year when we had hosepipe bans followed rapidly by more rain than in many years.
Sudden downpours of rain after weeks of drought can often result in flooding which can mean weeks of misery for people who have their homes ruined by dirty water. Modern forms of agriculture with huge fields and little in the way of trees and hedges add to the dangers of flooding by allowing water to run quickly off the fields instead of soaking into the soil. Run-off like this also adds to nutrient loss from soil and pollution into rivers.
Climate change deniers will say that these extremes are the natural course of things but man’s continued use of fossil fuels has warmed our atmosphere over generations, has added to the melting of our polar ice caps and altered our weather.
Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.
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