'Disappointing' Climate crisis given short shrift in campaign, say scientists

After five years of record heat and record floods, one might assume British politicians would also pay record to the climate issue in the current election campaign.

- Jonathan Watts

But concerns are growing that the response of the two main parties will range from tepid progress to a great leap backwards despite the certainty of further climate chaos during the next parliament.

In a sign of how worried the experts are, more than 400 scientists have signed a public letter to party leaders, urging them to adopt ambitious policies to prepare the country for the coming turmoil and to honour the UK's international obligation to address the primary causes - the burning of gas, oil, coal and vegetation.

"It is very clear that a failure to tackle climate change with sufficient urgency and scale is making the UK and the rest of the world more dangerous and insecure," notes the letter, whose signatories include the government's former chief scientific adviser Sir David King, the former president of the Royal Meteorological Society Prof Joanna Haigh, and Prof Ed Hawkins, who created the "climate stripes" graphic.