The truth about climate change is still a hot topic

2025 wasn’t a particularly good year politically for our current Government and probably best forgotten with the hope that 2026 is going to be better for them and us.

- Angus Long

However, there was one piece of news that interested me and it was that Met Office statistics confirmed that 2025 was officially the warmest summer on record for the UK since records began in 1884.

For some years now the issue of global warming has impacted upon almost every facet of our daily living and is regularly reported and debated in the media.

I’ve noticed too, that the letters page in The Journal has attracted, and continues to attract, many ripostes on this subject with the majority challenging the seemingly lone sceptic of John W Gray.

I often feel that Mr Gray is a lone mortal up against an army of opponents, like David confronting Goliath. Well, we all know how that conflict ended.

What I thought I’d do in today’s column is reflect, with an open and neutral mind, upon some of the key climate issues presented to us over the years which will hopefully be support for either David or Goliath.

First, historical fear. Vocal extremists say we've only a few years left to save the planet.

The problem is, doomsayers have been predicting a cataclysmic climate for many years now.

In 1969, it was reported in the New York Times that if pollution wasn’t stopped mankind would die out within 20 years.

In the early 1970, we were warned there'll be another ice age by the 21st century.

In the 1980s, experts changed the mantra from an impending ice age to one of extreme heat.