England’s home of cricket, Marylebone Cricket Club, said that it is "joining the fight against climate change to avert more damage from severe weather that has already cost millions of pounds and wrecked historic grounds" where the sport is played, according to Jess Shankleman of BLOOMBERG. MCC signed an agreement with EDF Energy that "shifts its electricity consumption" to 100% renewable energy, according to a statement released Tuesday. The club’s Lord’s cricket ground "made the move after new figures showed storms and flooding linked to climate change" caused more than £3.5M of damage across 57 cricket clubs in a "single stormy month." Priestley Int'l Center for Climate Dir Piers Forster said, "We know that climate change made the record wet weather in December 2015 considerably more likely." The England & Wales Cricket Board contributed more than £1M to clubs hit by flooding in '16 and has "earmarked" an additional £1.6M ($2M) for this year, it said (BLOOMBERG, 2/7). In London, Colin Fernandez reported two clubs hit by the storms in Dec. '15 -- Sowerby Bridge in Yorkshire and Appleby Eden in Cumbria -- "have yet to return to their grounds." The 130-year-old Corbridge Cricket Club, Northumberland, "also had to have its clubhouse demolished as a result of flooding." In Wales, "the historic Plas Cadnant hidden gardens" near the Menai Bridge on Anglesey faced a "tidal wave" of flood water on Boxing Day 2015 following days of heavy rain, damaging plants and visitor facilities (DAILY MAIL, 2/7). The BBC reported the "Weather Warning" report, which comes from the Climate Coalition, is backed by more than 100 organizations including the WWF-UK, the RSPB, the National Trust and the Women's Institute (BBC, 2/6).
