This was the most important summer ever. If this happens again next year, you will not address Britain’s ecosystems Lucy Jones
WHat, does the British summer mean to you? blackberries? Picnics? Festivals? Tick? This summer was the most recorded in the UK. With the intensification of the collapse of the climate caused by a person, the external areas that we spend in the appropriate time change-and so on, are our relations with the Earth and the ecosystems in which we live.
My home in southern England, near the beautiful forests. Since his move there in 2016, the number of ticks that my family picked up in the forest increased every year, but this summer was amazing. For a few weeks, our four -year -old child has returned home from the nursery with almost every day. I had a lot: some of the little offenses that could be easily missed. We spend time in Scotland as well, and we find signs of ticks often when we go there now.
We have become grateful to remove fluids with a special tool, protect ourselves and check children – but there are risks. Lyme disease is increasingPerhaps fatal Brain inflammation transmitted in ticks It was also found in the United Kingdom. In the United States, there are 500,000 new cases Lyme disease Every year. Sometimes I wonder if this is a matter of time only before the dangers of spending time in these forests – beloved spaces, like the second house – can exceed the benefits.
Last week, we went to Kimmerig Bay In Dorset. The weather was glorious, and we saw the pale blue color Star Paddy Cancer, shrimp and fossils, but the surrounding yellow fields were strange, and a reminder of the violence of this moment. I felt accused SolastalgiaAnd it is a word formulated by the Australian philosopher Glenn Albricht to describe “the distress that results from the environmental change that affects people while they are directly connected to their household environment.”
It is a complex experience, which lives at this time of the climate crisis, with a short -term human brain, optimistic in general and equipment. Perhaps the fields were yellow and death at the end of August when you were a child? Maybe I imagine that we are used to seeing more sundat? Or butterflies? Or hedgehog? (This is changing the foundation line syndrome, and statistics show fixed declines for the most hot species and summer.)
Daily, our summer was good because we were able to be outside and enjoy the sun. Yes, a tree has died in our garden, and the drought may be a factor. The frogs did not survive, perhaps because the blessing dried up. I do not swim much in local rivers – an activity that I found very therapeutic – due to pollution levels. I am used to the feeling of Solastalgia.
But it has become difficult to get used to her heat in the past few years. I hated maximum The thermal wave of 2022As temperatures reached 40 ° C for the first time (since the records of the records) in the United Kingdom. With a child and young at home, we could not get out. And when we could, everything was dead and calm. He was frustrated and frightening.
With the extreme heat expected in the coming decades, the exit in the summer will be more difficult: it will be festivals and mathematical events in the open air Very dangerous; People’s chances of relaxation and relaxation may decrease in nature.
The effects of climate change on the British summer will be unequal across classes, race, social and economic. The most deprived areas are less vulnerable to a tree cover. Low -income families ’homes are likely to be rented and those who have children and families of ethnic minorities more temperature.
The countries most vulnerable to the intense climate-related collapse-that in the global south, which are not responsible for climate change caused by human activity-face the summer is expected to be more deadly and violent than those in Northern hemisphere.
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But in the new heat and droughts in the United Kingdom, the health of ecosystems – in other words, life – is threatened. Wildlife can become dried and struggle to find food and water. The trees may die. Plants may reduce flowering and seed production. Without food plants, the larvae can not survive, which means fewer butterflies and mites. If the fruit succeeds early, it may not be present for migrants in winter such as the field or redwings, or for carpets such as Dormice. High temperatures and low water levels threaten the ecosystems of fresh water by shrinking habitats and concentration levels of pollutants and wastewater.
When I got close to our wildlife and nature NGOs about how to play British summer with the living world, they were keen to tell me what we could do to help our non -human neighbors. The suggestions included: increasing wild flowers that retain moisture in public spaces and road edges; Pastures of keeping the ponds are topped. Leave the shallow water dishes with gravel in them so that bees and butterflies can also drink them safely; Let the grass areas grow long; Create a shade with the record piles.
We know what the government needs and work. Stop burning fossil fuels. Our leaders go to economic growth at any cost, even if any cost means the collapse of the valuable life network on Earth as we know it. How many summer summer will we ignore?