Leader

摘要

As world leaders at the Paris summit entered the final stages of negotiation over an agreement to limit carbon emissions this week, those seeking evidence of climate change and its causes did not have far to look. With more than 5,000 homes in Cumbria and Lancashire flooded, schools closed and NHS operations cancelled, those who argue that the UK is now starting to suffer from the impact of climate change had plenty of ammunition. Whether the scale of rainfall brought by storm Desmond in the North-west this week is a result of a changing climate is, for a one-off event, impossible to prove. But given similar events over the past few years, it seems much more likely than not. Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, Beijing issued its first red alert over smog, causing the shutdown of outdoor construction sites. So, as leaders entered the eleventh hour in discussions over new targets for curbing emissions once the current set run out in 2020, there was plenty to remind them of what was at stake. And that's just on this week's mainstream western news services -climate change delegates from countries like Costa Rica and Bangladesh will, of course, have far more dramatic stories.