The British are famous for their obsession about the weather and our national trait of accepting events being rained off or otherwise miserable because of poor roads etc. Imagine waking up to smoke so thick you can hardly breath? Or walking down stairs to discover there IS no downstairs, just a river where the floor used to be? Judging by the current and recent crop of news headlines, we may not need to use our imagination much longer but instead find ourselves starring IN those stories.

In June, a heat dome descended over the Pacific Northwest, sending temperatures soaring 30 to 40 degrees above normal. It was so hot that plants scorched in the soil, roads cracked, and streetcar cables melted in temperatures that reached over 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

We complain about potholes in the road for goodness sake! This scenario is more a question of a hole with a bit of tarmac in it.

Then, in July, extreme floods ripped through northwest Europe, leaving at least 199 dead. The same happened in China’s Henan province, where subways flooded, roads collapsed, and at least 99 people died. And last week, yet another heat dome swept the US, putting 17 states under some form of heat advisory.

Heavy downpours in Chicago's far southwest suburbs on Monday night prompted a flash flood warning and caused a bridge in Seneca to partially collapse, stranding a driver over a massive hole in the structure, authorities said.

One in four steel bridges in US ‘could collapse by 2050’ due to extreme temperatures, study says

So in those last three paragraphs we have the two mightiest nations on the planet finding themselves in a common position of vulnerability.

That is why COP26 is going to be so important and why the report being published by the UN today, by some of the brightest minds around the globe is going to set out the way forward. All we have to do is pay attention and do something different to bring about the change that has to happen if we are all to stop waking up to encroaching fires, droughts & floods. Not on the news, but right outside our doors.