Well we made it into 2013, and a Happy New Year to everyone. It seems set to be a year in which climate change is finally going to become the major global issue it needs to be. That optimism on my part was sparked by a story that Barack Obama is "seriously considering" hosting a bipartisan summit of climate change to thrash out a national strategy. The US has not distinguished itself particularly when it comes to environmental issues, but the signs are more encouraging for 2013.
Back home, however, the New Year didn't start so well. News of the North Sea Brent pipeline being closed down following a leak at one of the pumping platforms sent a shiver down many a spine, as we all remembered the fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico. What with fracking about to start, nuclear power plants set to make a comeback and now our very own undersea leak, can we rewind and start again?
• Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey finds the sight of someone eating sheep's testicles "stomach-churning". That is about the nearest he came to talking about the environment in the first edition of the BBC's Question Time of 2013.
He was responding to a question regarding the appearance of MP Nadine Dorries on the TV show I'm a Celebrity... His answer revolved around whether she could do her job as an MP properly while holed up in the jungle. He missed the opportunity to question whether the whole idea of the show – transporting a small number of people half-way across the world to compete for a dubious honour by consuming examples of local wildlife – was contrary to the principals of environmental responsibility.
• As I write this it is snowing – hard. Which is pretty much par for the course at the start of a year which is forecast to be nearly half-a-degree warmer globally than the average. That has followed a year which was the second wettest on record in the British Isles – except for the Channel Islands, where it was the third wettest on record! I'm guessing it's not because they had a particularly wet year not experienced in the rest of Britain.
Chris Stokes