I've had lower back pain for years, and last Friday my body said 'Enough is enough Carol!' and I could no longer stand up. I took to my bed and, forced to spend a fair bit of time horizontal, I've been following the flood news. I see a parallel between my pain and the extreme weather...

* I have ignored my back pain for years. We have ignored the calls from environmentalists about global warming for years.

* Both my back and the UK are in crisis with extreme weather warnings daily in the UK and with my osteopath issuing extreme warnings to me.

* It would now be sensible for me to listen to my osteopath and learn how to look after my back so that I remain mobile. And surely it would now be sensible for the Governnment to listen to the Met Office and learn how to look after our world so that it remains habitable. Because, guess what, there is evidence that the extreme storms in the UK are caused by global warming. 

It has been so terrible to watch tearful people dealing with their flooded, sewage-riddled homes. I don't know who I felt more sorry for, a man I saw interviewed who'd only just bought his home two months ago, or a woman on TV who'd been flooded out and had lived in her home for thirty years. 

And now flooded homes along the River Thames have been evacuated and the army has been brought in to protect the empty homes from looting, as further inland we sit praying that we'll be okay. Apparently the Thames Barrier should hold out unless we have a freak event. Fingers crossed then everyone.

There are those who still maintain that extraordinary weather is not all that extraordinary. UK Fishermen who haven't been able to work for two months would disagree - having worked the seas for decades, they say they have never seen anything like this. And water levels are expected to rise even higher in the next 24 hours.

There will always be freak weather but if we can prevent it natural disasters, isn't that a good idea. 

Carol (I-sometimes-feel-like-I'm-living-in-a-disaster-movie) Muskoron

Got you feeling all eco? Check out our interview with the zero waste goddess Bea Johnson - if she could apply her household skills to the rest of the planet, we might all be a lot safer. Got a bad back? Find out how to stop back pain here.