Madam,

A few weeks ago I sent you a letter stating, quite clearly, that the climate of Ceredigion has changed, noting that the average temperature in July both during the day and night was much warmer than the long-term average.

Yesterday, a poll was published in a national newspaper which asked: “Which one of the following do you think is more likely about the recent heat wave we experienced?” It was conducted by the Deltapoll organisation asking 1,904 people across the UK between 14 and 16 August this year.

Across the UK as a whole 49 per cent replied that: “Weather goes in cycles and this was just another hot summer that comes around from time to time, like 1976 and had little or nothing to do with climate change” compared to 36 per cent who replied: “It was caused by climate change for which the human race is responsible, and we will have more and more extreme weather events like this unless much more is done to solve it soon”, with 15 per cent unable to offer an opinion either way.

The regional breakdown of this poll indicates that those living in London are climate change deniers, with 47 per cent stating that it had nothing to do with climate change, a view echoed by those in the South East and South West of England (50 per cent); the West Midlands, East Midlands and Eastern England (58 per cent); and even in Scotland (55 per cent). The only part of the UK to recognise that the recent heatwave was due to climate change was in Wales, with 53 per cent agreeing that it was due to climate change and only 33 per cent disagreeing with it and 13 per cent being unsure.

People of Wales, I salute you.

Yours etc,

Harry Hayfield, Llanrhystud.

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