An Inconvenient Truth

It's official. 2006 was the UK's warmest year since records began in 1659. This year the average temperature was almost 11C. The previous record of 10.6C was set in 1990 and 1999. Astonishingly, ten of the warmest years on record have occurred in the past 15 years.

We certainly saw the effect of these warmer temperatures in Russia. Cities normally covered in a foot or more of snow had barely a dusting. We even started removing our thermals on the last few days to avoid overheating. London is also warmer than this time last year. With only a day to go, the average temperature in December has been 6.3C, about 1.5C higher than normal. The Met office is also saying the there's a better than 60% chance 2007 will be another year of record warmth.

I must admit that these statistics and our experience in the UK make the concept of global warming seem increasingly real. Earlier this year I saw Al Gore's global warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. It contains some sobering moments and genuinely astonishing statistics. I did feel slightly conflicted while watching the movie as it was screening on an inflight entertainment system thousands of metres above the Atlantic. Al and others claim that the airline industry one of the planet's more significant carbon emission sources.

While our weather has been pleasant, this looks likely to come to an abrupt end. New Year's Eve is set to be unpleasant with gales of up to 80 mph forecast for Scotland. We'll have rain and gusts in down here in London, but nothing extreme.