A presentation about climate change will take place in Laxey on Thursday.

Campaigner Paul Craine will show slides at a presentation entitled ’Laxey Floods - Climate Reality’ and talk about the flooding in the village in December 2015 and October this year in the context of local extreme weather events.

The Climate Reality Project was established in 2011 by former US Vice President Al Gore.

Today, the project trains individuals who must complete a detailed application procedure.

Twenty thousand people from 154 countries have now completed a three-day training event and have committed to leading a minimum of 10 ’climate reality events’.

Mr Craine joined 1,100 other people from across the world at a training event in Minneapolis in the summer.

It had sessions led by Al Gore and a range of experts from many backgrounds and related fields.

’I taught geography for 20 years in the 1980s and 1990s and followed the growing evidence for climate change,’ Mr Craine said.

’We covered the Rio Earth Summit (1992) when I taught at Castle Rushen High School and climate change was added to the geography A level in the years that followed.

’Today, I am involved in revising and marking GCSE geography examinations for two of the UK examining boards - helping to set and mark exam papers - so I have a good understanding of how well young people know and understand the issues.

’I had been following the Global Reality Project for a few years and was keen to see to the full Climate Reality resources. I can now access an enormous slide-deck with 650 slides (some with videos embedded) and these are updated almost monthly.

’I receive daily communications on climate change issues, covering all aspects, and have access to regular online meetings with a group of about 20 people who were on the training course in August.’

All of the ’Climate Reality Leaders’ are being encouraged to lead an event on November 20 and 21, which has been designated as ’24 hours of Climate Reality’.

Mr Craine was invited to lead this public presentation in Laxey.

’I am mindful that feelings are still very raw [in Laxey], he said.

’I simply hope that I can help people to understand the context of what they have been experiencing.’

The graph here is one of several that Mr Craine has produced using data supplied by Ronaldsway Met Office.

It shows the island’s ’climate stripes’ - showing the changes in mean annual temperatures over the last 70 years.

’The staff at the Met Office have been brilliant and have provided some remarkable information that I have incorporated into the presentation.

’Climate change is not just something that "may happen in the future" or "is affecting other places" - it has been happening here in our lifetimes.’

Another event in the ’24 hours of Climate Reality’ will be a presentation as part of the geography A-level course at Castle Rushen High School on Wednesday, November 20.

’It will be great to share these resources with students at Castle Rushen, where I taught geography for 15 years,’ Mr Craine said.

’So much of the understanding of climate change is geographical. It is not just for climate scientists as it involves energy, pollution, population, land-use, soils, desertification, development, hurricanes, flooding, wildfires and many other areas of geographical content.’

Mr Craine wants to give more ’climate reality’ presentations to groups around the island and can be contacted at [email protected].

Thursday’s public meeting will take place at the Laxey Salmon Lake Centre on November 21, at 7.30pm.