In the discussion that followed his agenda-setting speech at Chatham House in January, the British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, commented that perhaps the only threat to the shores of our islands as we embark upon the new century is the consequences of global warming. Too true. Therefore, it was particularly chilling to hear Dr Peter Wadhams of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, who is Britain’s leading authority on polar ice, describe in dispassionate detail to the Greenwich Forum a few days later, his recent findings in the Greenland Sea and the Arctic Ocean.
Water: Water, water, everywhere...
Nowadays, talking about the weather is no longer just a British obsession: policy-makers around the world have water on their minds. Too much water, too little water, the wrong sort of water, water in the wrong place. It is an explosive issue.
