Climate change has hit home in the UK, where London has experienced its rainiest January ever, NPR reports. And news reports suggest that it is going to be even worse over the next week. The Thames has overflowed to the edge of Windsor Castle; NPR reports that thousands have fled and more are fleeing every day. Pictures are showing people walking in ankle deep water, trying to get by.
Bill McKibben of 350.org says that there is an ongoing pattern of this extreme weather and it is the beginning of extreme climate change:
While governors have declared states of emergency from Louisiana to New Jersey due to the massive snow and ice storm, other examples of extreme weather are being seen across the globe. California is facing possibly its worst drought in 500 years. In Russia temperatures have topped 60 degrees Fahrenheit at the Winter Olympic in Sochi. Meanwhile in Britain, gusts of more than 100 miles per hour lashed western England and Wales overnight, and in London the Thames has risen to its highest level in decades. "This is the kind of crazy weather that scientists said will mark the advent of climate change in its early stages," says 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben. "And it should be the warning that we need to actually do something, but so far our leaders haven't taken up that challenge."
While Missouri has been spared some of the worst weather, there are some peculiar patterns. A mild summer last year was followed by a flash drought in August and September. And last month, for much of the month, the weather would alternate between days in the 40's and days in which it was snowy and/or below zero; we were at 22 below zero one day and two other days got down to 12 below. Now, the weather shot up to 50 today and will be 40's and 50's for much of the next several days.
Back in the UK, this disaster could help bring about the end of Prime Minister David Cameron's government. The government is under heavy fire for cutting back on environmental agency workers who are specifically trained to respond to floods. This, according to NPR, did not sit well with people:
"This could've been prevented," says Bert Goody, 77, who had to evacuate the mobile home he's lived in for 40 years. "It's going to cost the government a lot more now. They could've done something years ago. It'd be a lot cheaper."
Similarly, back in 1996, the Conservative government came under heavy fire for what critics saw as a painfully slow response to the Mad Cow crisis. That helped sweep Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair into power.