"Among the main issues highlighted in the authority’s response to the review, being led by writer and ex-Government advisor Julian Glover, who visited the North York Moors in September, was the disparity between its  powers to look after the landscape and buildings and its impotence to protect wildlife.

An authority spokesman said: “The current contrast between our extensive and accepted powers under planning legislation and our lack of statutory powers to protect wildlife is extreme.

Performing a rain dance?

"If you're trying to model an ice sheet, the single most important input is ice thickness," said Prof Jonathan Bamber. "Why's that? Because velocity is proportional to the fourth power of thickness. So differences in thickness make for huge differences in the velocity of the ice in our models; and to things like thermodynamics, because thick ice is warmer than thin ice, and so on," the Bristol University, UK, glaciologist told BBC News."