Farmers must have sighed in relief when it rained last Tuesday.

We are going through an anomalous winter, if we can call it such. Temperatures have been higher than normal in the past weeks. We had the warmest December in a century.

Not only in Malta: other European countries have registered records with regard to balmy weather. While many welcomed it because they prefer warmer to colder days, it is of concern when something “out of place” occurs with so much vigour.

Summer of 2022 was the hottest on record for Europe, last year was the second warmest on the Continent and, globally, it was the fifth warmest year ever.

It is yet another proof – if there was any need of one – about the changes in the climate that we are experiencing.

In relative terms, this has been a very fast change. Older people will remember a much more “organised” climate 30, 40 and 50 years ago.

Summer was summer, winter was winter. But it is no longer the case.

There are arguments that say that extremes are getting further apart. Heat waves are lasting longer and taking place more frequently, while cold spells are pushing the temperature down further and, when it rains, the volume of water that comes pouring down is causing bigger floods than what we were accustomed to.

There are also arguments that climate change is sometimes also leading to situations that we are experiencing today – a very mild winter (at least so far), with higher-than-normal temperatures and little rain. Then, rainfall in summer has become more common and the storms that we are having in the so-called hot months are also more frequent.

In a nutshell, climate change is something that needs to be taken seriously. In another editorial we wrote a few weeks ago, we said that politicians must stop their patronising rants and do something about it.

Malta now has a chance to make its voice heard stronger on the international stage.

As we all know, for the next two years Malta is serving on the United Nations Security Council. We also know that, next month, climate change will be top of the agenda for the council.

This opportunity should not be lost.

Malta should be using its position to pass on a strong message to the rest of the world that unless action is really taken, a situation which has worsened in the past decades will spiral more out of control.

Our small size, this time, gives us an advantage, as our carbon footprint is much smaller than what other, larger countries generate. So, in a sense, we have less to lose in this regard. This means that we can take bolder stands on such a subject.

Secondly, we should strive to be an example and, in this sense, the government is already working in this direction. Having said this, there is still a long way to go because it is so hard to change an ingrained mentality. Schools should serve as a launching pad to reach out to the older generations – the example that children could give might instil older people to follow.

No more time should be lost.