Climate change is upon us

THE sights, sounds, and smells that assailed me as I was walking through the chaos and destruction of devastated Tacloban City last year, soon after the most powerful storm ever to hit land, made me realize that this was the future. This utter devastation wreaked by a vengeful nature on her tormentors was going to be repeated across the globe. Climate change is upon us.

Extreme weather conditions will be what we can expect in the future. In the UK last year, massive unprecedented flooding cut off towns and villages. The economic cost was massive. We have to ask why and what can be done to prevent such destructive weather conditions getting worse and less frequent. The Philippines experienced 25 typhoons in 2013.