There was a comedy gold sequence on Channel 4 News last night when Garry Gibbon asked a couple of climate-sceptic politicians, including UKIP leader Nigel Farage, what their views on climate change were as they were knee deep in floodwater (it’s towards the end of the sequence above). Wonderful squirming with the normally bullish Farage admitting “I don’t know” when he was asked whether he thought climate change was man-made.

But behind the schadenfreude there’s a serious point here. It’s one thing to sneer at climate science when you’re sat at your computer blogging or sinking a pint in the golf club bar, quite a different thing when you are standing slap bang in the middle of its (probable) impacts. We learn much better from first hand experience than being told something second hand.

I often talk about my road to Damascus moment on the road to Monchegorsk in Arctic Russia (below) where I saw and even taste in the air the damage done by acid rain from a nickel smelter. This propelled me from armchair environmentalist to actually doing something about it.

But experiences don’t have to be negative. Nestlé allowed their employees to try out and even borrow electric cars so they could gain positive experiences and reduce the fear of the new. Other bodies such as Sustrans run guided cycle trips to give adults confidence to get back in the saddle.

Primary school children are taught to “show, don’t tell” – something that sustainability practitioners – and the environmental movement in general – should take to heart.