Guildford Views on Climate Change

Published on: 25 Aug, 2025
Updated on: 27 Aug, 2025

Today (August 25) the maximum temperature in Guildford was 26ºC, probably a high point of the mildest of the several heatwaves we have suffered, or enjoyed, this summer – but what does it tell us?

The Met Office has warned that the UK is breaking heat and rainfall records increasingly frequently. We now experience a “notably different” climate to what it was just a few decades ago, its “State of the UK Climate” report says.

There many more very hot days and many fewer extremely cold nights, according to this latest assessment.

It shows just how much global warming caused by the vast emissions of greenhouse gases our civilisation creates is reshaping the country’s climate.

Young climate crisis protestors marching up the High Street in February 2020 but there have been no marches this year.

Climate change is bringing more severe weather events like storms and flooding – and inevitably the country’s changing climate is having an impact on the natural world, with some species suffering.

The report focuses on 2024, when the UK experienced its second-warmest February, warmest May, warmest spring, fifth-warmest December, and fifth-warmest winter since records began in 1884.

The Met Office highlights that some of these records have already been surpassed in 2025 – more evidence of this trend towards more extreme weather.

Guildford Dragon reporters went out and about to discover views from the street and the towpath…

Responses to Guildford Views on Climate Change

John Murray Reply

August 26, 2025 at 1:03 pm

The world’s climate is certainly changing and this is nothing new as any work on natural history will testify. The effects have sometimes been devastating. It was global warming that cut the continent off from Britain some 450,000 years ago and in 1656 colder temperatures enabled the Swedish army to march across the sea to invade Denmark.

The only difference today is that there is a scientific theory that says that the current change is due to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But it is worth remembering that scientific theories, no matter how well supported in their time, are often later proved wrong. So it may well be that the current change will happen anyway and “Net Zero” is just a waste of time and effort, as well as being largely impractical.

What is important is to prepare for climate change (it will not all be bad) and to address the other major problem that the world faces: overpopulation. This is at the root of many of our problems, from immigration to lack of housing and resources generally but, unlike climate change, it is hardly ever mentioned.