It’s been a while since I last posted anything on here, the best part of six months in fact.I have a valid reason, I’ve been fully focused on completing my masters in Environmental Science. Now that’s done, and whilst I remain an unemployed post graduate, I thought I might as well sit down and take on the blogosphere again.
Anyway, as I pondered what to write about this morning, I didn’t have to look too far for inspiration. I simply opened my blinds, and there it was, rain.
It just seems to be endless at the moment, and it got me thinking about the whole ‘how can this be global warming, it’s the wettest summer ever.. blah blah blah’ argument. Well of course being a graduate in Environmental Science, I know exactly that really it isn’t just global warming, it’s climate change.
And climate change doesn’t just mean global warming, in fact it’s exactly what it says on the tin, CLIMATIC CHANGE. It’s exactly this kind of extreme weather. Unpredictability. We should probably expect this to be the ‘norm’ from now on. I’ve said for a while now, the main British summer happens around April-May time. That’s when we get the long periods of sunshine and drought, and the old summer period of June-August is just an inconsistent washout nowadays.
But, what does all this mean, why should we be concerned about when our summer is (apart from the fact that the school summer holidays are ruined…)? Well, nature is very much in tune with the seasons. I’ve forgotten the term for it, but there is a word that describes the relationship of blossom to the spring period or the hatching of eggs so that young birds are emerging at just the right time of the year when their is a boom in their food source. Pretty sure it begins with ‘e’. I studied it maybe a few years ago. It’ll come to me. Nevertheless, this relationship is natural, developed and evolved over time, so that the conditions for best productivity of the natural world are met.
This extreme weather we see now is a sign of climatic change, and it is having a huge effect on wildlife, both positive and negative. The National Trust have described this rainy period as ‘almost apocalyptic’ for some species.
Unfortunately it’s some of our most at risk species that are suffering. Bees and butterflies the prime examples of creatures already facing major environmental issues, threatened even more by the recent weather. The winners of these downfalls have been slugs and snails, and I’ve certainly noticed a boom in their appearance, whilst UK greenery has also thrived, particularly, unfortunately, such plants as nettles…
So severe the weather has been, that Matthew Coates (National Trust Conservation Advisor) has warned that the list of losers is far lengthier than the list of winners, and even went as far as to say that rare/isolated species may face local extinction.
It seems that the UK bird population is likely to take a bit of a battering (literally), with many sea birds struggling to nest as they’re blown off cliff nesting sites. It’s believed that the adult Terns nesting in Northern Ireland have struggled to keep chicks dry and warm, potentially wiping out all young for the year. One of the UK’s most iconic birds, the Puffin, has also suffered dramatically with the National Trust saying that up to 90% of Puffin burrows on Brownsman Island lost and nearly half of the burrows on other islands containing drowned Puffins.
Of course the issue isn’t just in the short term, i.e this summer, but it also has a knock on effect for the coming years. 2013 populations are likely to suffer as a result, and in turn like everything connected in nature it could have knock on effects from one species to another, as potentially entire food webs could suffer.
So next time you look out the window and think, what a crappy day, just remind yourself that isn’t just humans affected by climate change.
Jack
I am a freelance environmental author with an MSc and BSc in Environmental Sciences from The University of East Anglia. Just trying to develop social media as an effective platform for communicating and engaging with people on all things green... Please get in touch with me if you are interested, I am willing to discuss any proposals.
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