The Sunday Times
Chris Haslam

Travel planning has always involved a gamble with the weather. Sometimes it’s a dead cert — the Canaries in December, for example. At others it’s a long shot, Brittany being rain-free in August, and occasionally it’s a no-hope outsider, as anyone who has been tempted by a bargain package to Thailand in September will know.

The weather, however, is no longer a safe bet. The climate is changing, and last year offered the most dramatic and convincing evidence yet of its effects. Wildfires destroyed tens of thousands of square miles of forest in the US, South America and Europe.

Devastating floods hit Australia, South Africa, the Sahel and Pakistan, and Europe endured the hottest summer since measurements began, with the UK reaching a new high of 40.3C at RAF Coningsby on July 19.

African rivers are dry. Alpine resorts are warm and muddy. Beaches in the south of France recorded June-like temperatures at Christmas and, last week, Los Angelenos built snowmen. India issued heatwave alerts in February, Adelaide issued a “code red” heatstroke warning last week, and in Mauritius holidaymakers sought shelter as Cyclone Freddy battered the island. It will come as no surprise that there’s more of the same to come, exacerbated this year and next as a new El Niño event takes over from the outgoing La Niña.

The basics of climate change are straightforward: greenhouse gases (GHGs) produced mainly by fossil-fuel consumption have filled the atmosphere like feathers in a duvet, blanketing the world and trapping the sun’s heat.

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