A plethora of scientific reports underpinned the global phenomenon throughout the year, which was officially the warmest ever recorded in Britain and the sixth warmest the world has known. It was, globally, a tad cooler than 2005, the hottest ever, but it continued a trend: the eight hottest years ever recorded have been in the last 10 years.

A succession of alarming reports came out. James Lovelock, the British scientist who devised the Gaia theory - that living organisms affect the environment - forecast planetary wipeout; government studies showed that Australia, in the middle of a "1,000-year" drought, would get even hotter and drier, and that worldwide crop yields would decrease. The Gulf Stream, which warms northern Europe, was found to be slowing, the tundra to be melting faster than previously thought, and satellite images showed that major rivers of Africa are carrying significantly less water than before. Monsoons were even more erratic across the Indian sub-continent, Arctic sea ice was predicted to disappear - along with polar bears - by 2040, and almost all the world's glaciers, in many cases providing water for cities, were confirmed to be in retreat.

In Europe, polls showed climate change to be the second most important issue, behind unemployment, with 93% of people wanting action taken. Spurred by Tony Blair's insistence that it was the "most serious issue facing mankind", and chief scientist David King's warning that global warming was "more dangerous than terrorism", the Tory leader David Cameron launched an immediate and serious pitch for the mainstream green vote with a trip to the Arctic. Labour, worried, astutely appointed David Miliband as the new environment secretary in place of Margaret Beckett. Within months, he had called for a complete rethink of national politics, saying that the environment movement today was as significant as the unions had been to the rise of Labour 100 years ago.