No power to the people this holiday season

More than 500,000 households in the north-eastern US and the south-eastern Canada are still without electricity after last weekend's severe ice storm. Utility crews are working round-the-clock, but warn that some homes could be without power at least until Saturday. In Toronto, 72,000 people were without electricity on Christmas Day, and at least 27 deaths in the region have been linked to the storm. Most of those were caused by apparent carbon monoxide poisoning as people used gas generators, charcoal stoves, and other appliances to heat their homes in freezing temperatures. "I understand they want to keep warm, but you cannot do this. This is deadly," Toronto Mayor and alleged drug user Rob Ford warned earlier this week. Other fatalities were caused by traffic accidents. Elsewhere in Canada, tens of thousands of people are still without power in New Brunswick, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. In the US, states from Maine to Michigan have also been affected by the adverse weather, and the ice covering the region as a whole will remain as long as temperatures stay below zero. There's no natural melting going on, so it's going to be human effort and endeavour that will get rid of the sheath of ice because that's what we get for causing climate change. In other climate change-related news, at least eight people died and dozens were forced out of their homes by heavy rain in the Caribbean islands of St Vincent and the Grenadines. Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who said he couldn't remember such heavy rain at Christmas, has cut short his holidays and was returning from London. Landslides and flooding also reportedly killed five people in the neighbouring island of St Lucia. Heavy rain has also been causing destruction in Dominica, also in the eastern Caribbean Sea. And in the nation that once ruled the general area, the Environment Agency is warning of further significant disruption from flooding in parts of southern England, with more heavy rainfall forecast. Many rivers remain swollen after storms which led to power cuts and travel delays, and two severe flood warnings are in place on the Stour in Dorset. About 1,000 homes in south-east and south-west England have been flooded. Some 24,000 properties still have no power and engineers say some may not be reconnected until the end of the week. The Met Office, meanwhile, is warning of another storm coming in from the Atlantic and expected to hit the UK tonight (their time) and continue into tomorrow. It could bring an inch (2.5cm) of rain and gusts of up to 70 mph, and is predicted to affect all parts of the UK except for the East Midlands and East Anglia. So before you go round blaming the Mayans or Gangnam Style or whatever for recent outbreaks of extreme weather, maybe you should think about your contribution to climate change. Your children will one day inherit your mistakes. And not just your children, but your children's children, and then their children after that, and so forth. Even children who are not yours, for example my niece (pictured), will be left to pick up after the mess you leave this world in.