Is anyone worried by the ongoing wildfires in Greece and soaring temperatures in Italy and Spain?

I don’t mean about going there on holiday or having to cancel if you were booked, although that is a concern and losing hard-earned money on a holiday is something most of us cannot afford.

But the difference is holidaymakers are returning home while people on the islands are witnessing the destruction of theirs.

I mean the bigger picture, the likely cause of another year of record temperatures around the world, and the possibility, fast becoming probability, that this is going to be a regular occurrence.

The reports on television of houses destroyed and people fleeing as fires approach their homes are as terrifying as they are tragic.

In Greece, where they are no strangers to hot weather, 40C plus has been recorded.

The Mediterranean Sea has hit record levels with the surface hitting 28.5C.

And remember, in late May and early June, we had unseasonally hot weather in Glasgow as well.

It may not have lasted long and not as devastating as what is going on in Greece and Italy but it was unusual and it happened.

It is not just hot weather that is a sign of climate change, but more flooding and we have seen more localised flash flooding in parts of Glasgow and across the UK in recent years.

Records have been broken in China and the USA as well, hot places are getting hotter.

This month scientists say the summer heatwave across southern Europe is 2.5C hotter than would normally be expected and that it is ‘almost impossible’ without man-made climate change.

Therefore, in the face of such an emergency, you would expect a doubling down on efforts to stop it.

So, it is remarkable that there is even talk of policies, designed to reduce emissions and create a greener planet, one that is not burning, being reconsidered.

As the devastating effect of climate change is witnessed in Europe, in places familiar to many people in Britain, we still see evidence that many people do not wish to acknowledge it.

Protesters, highlighting the causes of climate change are being attacked in public.

A senior police officer in London has even said protesters could be committing an offence if they are causing a disruption.

Environmental campaigners have been telling the public, industry and government for decades about the consequences of the continued burning of fossil fuels.

Many feel they have not been listened to fully, so some have taken a more direct in-your-face approach.

Now we have the baffling juxtaposition of news items of climate change setting one of our European neighbours ablaze followed by police telling the people highlighting that very danger they could be criminals.

Equally, if not more, concerning is we have the prospect of political parties moving away from environmental policies for fear of a potential backlash from people who either don’t believe in climate change or who think the measures we need to take now are too much of an inconvenience.

Less than two years ago in this city, the world leaders and business leaders gathered at COP 26 to make pledges and promises on action to limit climate change.

Now we have Rishi Sunak, our Prime Minister, telling the country he will be looking again at environmental policies.

He said it should not “give people unnecessarily more hassle and more costs”.

The Prime Minister of one of the biggest economies in the world, one of the developed nations that is more responsible than many others for creating climate change, thinks mitigating that damage is a “hassle”.

It is not going to be easy to transition from an economy so reliant on oil and gas to a greener future.

Many of us drive cars, take flights, and heat our homes with gas boilers and many jobs are dependent directly or indirectly on that economic model.

But the impact is becoming ever more evident and the transition needs to be speeded up not put on hold.

People in the southern hemisphere have been dealing with the effects for longer than we have with deaths and displacement.

Now we are starting to see it with our own eyes in this continent.

Lives lost, homes lost, and businesses ruined.

You have to wonder. What will it take?