Despite some flooding and a mild winter, the British weather the last few months hasn’t been too challenging, but that’s not the case in many other part of the world. We are fortunate to live by the sea in western Europe, but others aren’t so lucky.

Normally Australians can cope with hot weather, but they’re now struggling with 66 temperature records set this month in New South Wales, and all outside the tropics. Many were around 47C (117 F). Forest fires are rampant.

Sydney, on the cooler coast, has had 40 consecutive days with temperatures over 26C (close on 80F), doubling the old record of 20 days. The warmer sea has also bleached 95per cent of the Great Barrier Reef, while Western Australia has record rain and floods.

Elsewhere California’s five years of unprecedented drought has been interrupted. A relative who moved there 30 years ago reports exceptional rainfall, more than three times the average, with at least seven inches in very few hours. Much of it has provided unprecedented snow levels in the Sierra mountains.

The result has been dozens of landslides, even mountain sides, falling onto the road system and blocking much of it. It has been made worse by the extraction of underground water to cope with the drought resulting in many roads sinking three feet, and now almost impassable with considerable flooding.

Oroville Dam, the largest in California, couldn’t cope and the volume of water destroyed part of the slipway resulting in the movement of over 200,000 people and remarkable pictures on the BBC News. Repairing the damage will cost more than $200 million.

Similar weather challenges are occurring elsewhere in the world, such as the 2,000 square miles of forest fires in Chile, and the driest year ever in South Africa and neighbouring countries.

CO2 is the culprit. We need less of it.