WEATHER is one of those topics for which we in Britain are never short of a word.

If all else fails we can talk about this without challenge or difficulty.

There used to be a saying that if it rains on St Swithin's day, July 15, then it will rain for the next 40 days.

The St Swithin's Day legend is an old one –the earliest surviving written reference dates back to the 14th century. St Swithin was an Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester who died in around AD862. The clergyman requested that his remains be interred among the common people outside the church, but in 971, after he had been made patron saint of Winchester Cathedral, his body was dug up and moved to a new indoor shrine. The legend declares this caused displeasure in the heavens with a terrible downpour and continued unabated for 40 days.

Certainly since the schools finished for the summer holidays around that date we have not enjoyed a barbeque summer.

That said, our climate still remains stable unlike many less fortunate in our world.

Latest measurements have revealed around a 50% reduction in Arctic sea ice since the 1970s. Recently the explorer Pen Haddow has embarked on a journey to endeavour to reach the North Pole by sail boat. This would have been impossible only a few years back.

Very few would deny now that global warming is a reality and that human influences are significant and detrimental. The terrible loss of life due to mud slides in Sierra Leone and similar events in Chile are reminders of just how serious climate change can be. The factors in this are many and complex. What is so often the reality is that sadly the poorest and less privileged who are most vulnerable and the worst affected.

Given the size, complexity and seriousness of the challenges it can be all to easy to perhaps think that we personally cannot make much of a difference.

However simply ignoring it is not an option.

Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do.

Giving aid and caring for the environment are ever present.