Climate change, where've you been?

Obligatory picture of ice

Something quite peculiar happened at the Labour Party Conference this year. Whilst every political commentator scathed at the lack of the word 'deficit' in Ed Milliband's closing speech, nobody picked up that the phrase 'climate change' had been uttered in mainstream politics. 

It actually happened again today at the Liberal Democrat conference. Whilst not actually using the exact phrase, Nick Clegg boasted about his party's efforts to stick to their green commitments - claiming '...it’s not green crap to us.'

Whilst the lack of attention on both utterances isn't that unusual, had there been any I'm sure Ed's bold pledge to take '...all of the carbon out of our electricity by 2030' would probably have come under a bit of scrutiny, the fact that they were there at all was a pleasant surprise. As Ed puts it himself, 

'You see the environment isn’t that fashionable any more in politics...'

Which is a bit of an understatement.

UKIP, although despised in many corners of the country, have had a surge in support despite publicly holding a policy to repel all policies associated with climate change. Nigel Farage actually used the flooding in Oxfordshire as a photo opportunity, clad in waterproofs, to claim that 'flooding happens' - just in case anyone wanted to call climate change on such unusual weather.

Flooding in Oxfordshire

As well as politicians, the public seem to be at odds with the theory of climate change. A survey by Gallup (which I came across via comedian John Oliver weirdly enough) found one in four Americans to be ‘solidly sceptical’ of climate change and only forty per cent as ‘concerned believers’.

This I find slightly terrifying. In the time since David Cameron stopped getting photographed riding a bike to work, evidence for the existence and effects of climate change has begun to mount up. As was documented in New Scientist (and written up for Science Nutshell by myself), that spot of rain that Nigel was so keen to brush off was actually made 25% more likely by the presence of human emissions. Add that to carbon-caused droughts in Australia and however many other studies that haven't crossed my radar, and you might start to understand my sense of fear.

Whilst the economic crisis has been, well, a crisis, climate change isn't something that can be fixed with the moving of some funds. It's affecting us now and will continue to accelerate until it is properly addressed. Let's just hope the winds of fashion change sooner rather than later.