As the water passes its height and ebbs away from St Asaph, Ruthin and York, we look on with sympathy. This time round we had only minor puddles in our bedroom from water oozing through the stone walls. Back in July, the whole ground floor of our converted riverside barn was feet deep in black river water and devastated. The worst time, I now appreciate, is not when the water is swirling past your windows and gushing under your doors. While that's going on you have too much to do to panic or feel sorry for yourself – carrying stuff to safety, rescuing the cats and chickens, checking on neighbours – and everyone else wants to help. The misery comes later, when the rest of the world seems to be back to normal: the news no longer shouts "Floods devastate England and Wales", and yet your home is a wreck.
Outside lie enormous heaps of sodden possessions, not just beds and carpets that can be replaced, but once-loved books, old clothes, photographs and paintings that cannot. These stinking heaps do not instantly disappear but remain as a reminder of all you've lost until the insurers give the go-ahead. Then begin the phone calls and emails to loss adjusters, builders, engineers; the forms and databases of every item lost, with estimates, receipts and even photographic evidence to prove that you really did have that little wooden summer house that was completely swept away in the torrent.
Wealthy countries have not only failed to provide cash to help poor people adapt to climate change, but much of what they have agreed to give so far has come out of existing aid budgets or in the form of loans that will need to be repaid, new research by two international agencies shows.
Next week, thousands will travel to Doha, Qatar, for the next round of climate change talks at COP (Conference of the Parties) 18. It's a crucial time for climate change and development, coming only six months after the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, and as discussions intensify around the post-2015 development agenda. The Kyoto protocol – the only global agreement on cutting greenhouse emissions – is set to expire at the end of this year.
China says its emissions will keep rising until its per capita GDP is around five times its current rate, further dampening hopes that the world's largest polluter will agree in principle to ambitious binding emission reduction targets at this month's Doha Climate Change Summit.
Back in 2006, WWF took David Cameron – then leader of the opposition – on a trip to the island of Svalbard, high in the Norwegian Arctic. He wanted to see for himself the impact climate change is already having on one part of the natural world, and to gain a deeper understanding of the causes of climate change. The Conservative leader also used the resulting publicity, including the now-famous "husky hugging" photograph, in his efforts to "detoxify" the party's brand.