Thousands of dead fish were found in the UK's overheated waterways last week. Last winter, floods devastated parts of northern England, leaving former residents homeless and hopeless. Climate change, in short, is not just a passing phenomenon that affects only distant countries and distant people. It must have been 20 years since I heard my first lecture on the subject from someone who insisted that we must reduce carbon emissions or live with the devastating consequences of further global warming. ( Ruth Wishart, the national)