Climate changed since childhood

REPRESENTATIVES from nearly every country in the world are getting together in Germany to discuss how the world can unite to prevent dangerous climate change. Well, I think this is long overdue.

I can only speak for our region and recall the period during and after the Second World War when I was at school and the summer holidays of five weeks every year when we had almost perfect weather every day, with an occasional thunderstorm stopping me and my schoolmates playing cricket on the derelict North Durham cricket field on Prince Consort Road.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky for days on end.

Compare that period in time and the weather we have had this so-called summer when it was at times colder than at any time we had during the winter months many years ago, when we never missed a period without snowfalls and the council sending out clearance vehicles to shift the snow off the main roads. I recall having to take my sledge down to Botty’s coal depot on West Street to collect a bag of sea coal which, with the shortage of mined coal, was just as good warming the house up.

Most people were out clearing the snow from the front door area.

There was no snowfall to talk about in recent times and the change in weather conditions over the years must be classified as climate change.

The meeting in Germany will hopefully find a solution to this worrying world problem as soon as possible, for our sake and future generations.

LES MAY, Gateshead