Early warming signs

Be prepared to say goodbye to the clear cut seasons that the United Kingdom is known and loved for and say hello to global warming and the introduction of severe, extreme and unpredictable weather patterns but when this time comes, remember that there were early warning signs of the effects of global warming.

The effects of global warming have not necessarily been ignored but we’ve been slow to pick up on them and as a result, the process of changing behaviours, habits and living patterns has been delayed and the results are still not firmly in place. Over the last three or four years we have been endlessly told to switch our televisions off standby, to turn the heating down and install double glazing and solar panels and to collect our rainwater to water our home grown vegetables and our bee-attracting hanging baskets but we’re still being told and some people still aren’t doing it.

From studies and research over the years, various global warming facts and figures have arisen from scientists and organisations such as Greenpeace including how much the temperature of the surface of the earth has risen by, how the seasons have shifted and with them the patterns of migrating birds, crop development and spawning dates for toads, newts and frogs. The problem with global warming from a diagnostic perspective is that it has happened gradually when you look at the smaller picture but these tiny changes (measured in millimetres, days and degrees over a matter of years) make up a remarkably different habitat now to that of the early 20th Century.

Take for example the delay of autumn by around five days in Central Europe over the last 50 years, a seemingly small shift and so why should we really care? Because if we don’t the chances are that we’ll start to experience more changes in weather patterns, natural disasters such as flooding as the polar ice caps continue to melt and species such as the Polar Bear struggling to adapt in time to survive. Animals and plants becoming extinct is not a new phenomenon, after all the earth has seen the dying out of dinosaurs, dodos and all sorts of other creatures and plant life but the current situation could cause the rate and variety of extinction to increase.

Fire and droughts have both happened in abundance across the world in recent years and this can be no coincidence; increasingly hot, dry weather means bush fires are a disaster waiting to happen and this is no longer something that happens just in the southern hemisphere, far away from the UK, this happens in European countries such as Spain too.

If you are concerned about the effects of global warming, go online to see what businesses are doing about it and while you’re there, why not read up on the climate change facts and see how you can get involved too.

About the Author

Deadly Migration: Outsmarting the Avian Flu

Atlas of Bird Migration: Tracing the Great Journeys of the World’s Birds $8.47 A comprehensive and authoritative guide to the fascinating mysteries of bird migration. Every year, billions of birds leave their North American breeding grounds for winter quarters farther south. That so many birds migrate so many miles, through life-threatening conditions, and to the same place each year, is simply stunning. The editor of this important and lavishly illustrated new book …