Penistone Friends of the Earth

Were the floods in Penistone due to Climate Change?

"Negative impacts (of Climate Change) will include increased risk of inland flash floods"

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007

Clearly, it is impossible to link climate change to any one event.

But there is no doubt that the globe is warming up and that at the same time we are witnessing severe weather across the planet."

BBC Meteorologist Nina Ridge

"A consequence of climate change is that we will see extreme weather patterns across the world.

June 2007 has been the wettest month since records began in 1883.

January 2007 was the 2^nd warmest January on record

Winter 2006/7 was the 2^nd warmest winter on record

April 2007 was the warmest April on record

On Monday, a sixth of the annual rain had fallen in some places in 12 hours

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007 states that it is very likely heavy rainfall events will increase in frequency. Major projected impacts are

Damage to crops; soil erosion, inability to cultivate land due to water logging of soil
Adverse effects on quality of surface and groundwater; contamination of water supply
Increased risk of deaths, injuries, respiratory and skin diseases
Disruption of settlements, commerce, transport and societies due to flooding; pressures on urban and rural infrastructures

Defra has found the following national statistics:

2/3 of adults think that climate change is caused by human behaviour
A third of young people think that the world is affected by climate change; a third think that it will become affected in the next two decades

Fill in an enquiry form here and tell us what you think to the questions:

Is climate change caused by human behaviour?
Were the floods in Penistone in June 2007 due to climate change?

When we have finished showing our display and collected the information together, we will publish our own statistics for Penistone on this website.

THE FACTS 7.7.07 from Met Office:Live Earth

	1.	The climate IS changing - globally the average temperature has risen by more than 0.7 °C over the last 100 years.
	2.	The current climate change IS unusual - it is not just part of a natural cycle.
	3.	Recent warming cannot be explained by the sun or natural factors alone.
	4.	Recent warming is very likely to be due to man-made greenhouse gases.
	5.	If we continue emitting greenhouse gases this warming will continue.
	6.	Delaying action will make the problem more difficult to fix.
	7.	It will affect EVERYONE.