China, US states show climate leadership
Having just thawed out from the Beijing winter freeze, a friend and I set out for the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in early April for what we thought would be a lovely spring holiday full of sunny strolls around lakes and satisfying hikes up mountains in northwestern China. What we had not imagined doing was pushing our hire car along an ice-covered road as snow swirled around us. This would in fact turn out to be one of our main outdoor activities as the unseasonable dump made those lakes and mountains impenetrable.
Our guide was apologetic. "It never usually snows in April," he said about as often as I wished I'd packed some decent warm clothes.
As climate change wields its influence on the planet, the idea of the "usual" weather pattern is increasingly irrelevant. And messing around with spring holiday plans is the least of the consequences.
