The severity and frequency of floods and storms may be an indication that global warming is not just around the corner but already here, according to the Green Party.

Floods this winter followed an amazing 12 inches of rain in less than two months but were still not a record.

Only two years ago, the autumn floods were even worse, bringing chaos and devastation to Lewes.

Just before the New Year, part of the West Pier in Brighton slithered into the sea after storms and, if it is ever rebuilt, it will have to be a metre higher because of rising sea levels.

Storms have been growing more frequent and severe in the last 20 years, a period which covers not only the hurricane of 1987 but the great storms of 1989 and 1990.

Meanwhile, The Argus weatherman Kenneth Woodhams, notes a marked trend in annual reports from his station in Hove, towards warmer and wetter winters.

This is being echoed nationally while over the world, nearly all the warmest years on record have occurred since 1990. But does it all matter? Yes, say the Greens. Humans will not be immune as the global environment deteriorates.

Keith Taylor, convenor of the Green group on Brighton and Hove City Council said: "If Saddam Hussein was threatening the sort of damage caused by global warming, there's no doubt we'd be doing something about it.

"But because the bulk of the damage is being caused by industrialisation, governments seek to lull us into a false sense of security.

"Even to the casual observer, the UK climate is changing, and changing fast. Scientists are saying if action is not taken in the next ten years, we will cause irreparable climate damage.

"It is likely this will happen and both this generation and the ones to follow will live in a world of worse living standards and lower quality of life, whatever the traditional economists say.

"Consumer choice is one way of helping people make good decisions but much of the problem lies in overconsumption."

Simon Williams, who organised the Green input into last year's Stop Esso campaign, says local action can make a difference.

He said: "The council has a very important role to play in working with business and residents to maximise the opportunities to make the town more sustainable.

"There are a huge number of opportunities to set a good example in its service delivery across many areas, whether it's buying eco-electricity, teaching in schools, using materials from ethical and sustainable sources, increasing energy efficiency, eradicating fuel poverty or championing renewable energy.

"Additionally, the council needs to take the lead to reduce the need to use private cars. National projections for car use show it is set to grow by 20 per cent this decade. The city's roads will not cope."

Continental Europe had some of the worst flooding in recent times last August. The Antarctic ice sheet is melting and the climate in Siberia and Alaska has changed rapidly since the Fifties.

Winter temperatures are typically five degrees warmer than in 1950.

The UK is experiencing milder and wetter winters and hotter and drier summers as predicted. Floods like those of recent years will become commonplace.

A report by the Energy Saving Trust identified that, nationally, £222 billion-worth of homes and businesses, one home in every 13 and more than three-fifths of our best farmland were under direct threat of flooding.

More than 640,000 people already live in flood-risk areas across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Brighton is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise, which is taking place at 6mm a year. Much of the seafront development could be lost within 50 years.

Coun Taylor said: "The National Trust has warned of more frequent collapses at Beachy Head. It is also planning to abandon some historic coastal sites to the sea."

Soil erosion on the South Downs has increased over the last 20 years, according to a study by Dr John Boardman, of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University.

This has been caused by poor farming practices and heavier rainfall. Ozone levels in Sussex, described as a significant worry, are among the highest in the country, mainly because of road transport.

Coun Taylor said: "Concern over global warming is no longer the domain simply of duffel-coated environmentalists. The hard-nosed insurance companies have recognised it and doubled some local premiums. Soon, some property will be uninsurable.

"Global warming must be treated as the clear and present danger for the next century, starting now."