Increasing unpredictability of floods, droughts, heat waves, and storms.
The current unpredictable weather patterns and climate shifts are related to events 25 years ago! It has taken 25 years for people to begin to listen and accept that climate change is something that they will have to deal with. Why has it taken so long? How do we know that climate is changing? Well, climate sceptics have done such an excellent job of maintaining that the release of Co2 into the atmosphere is a myth, that most people have chosen to believe in their own myth, that is a myth! The increasing incidence of storm events is beginning to prove them incorrect. Prof Sir John Beddington sees that there is a “need for urgency” in tackling climate change. At long last the government is taking notice of science and findings.
Whatever we were doing in 1988 is affecting the climate we are experiencing now. Climate reacts in a rather slow way, like a very long oil tanker, it takes time to show some of the effects of man’s actions. Following the weather this year, people like the retiring Chief Scientist of the UK Prof Beddington are fearful that events like catastrophic flooding and associated landslides, causing death and destruction, will be more common, unless we make massive changes now!
We really do need to take urgent action now. By lowering our carbon footprints immediately we will only be affecting climate in 25 years, (there is already enough CO2 in the atmosphere for there to be more floods and droughts over the next 25 years;)if we do nothing, these events will become commonplace.
So, what has the UK government’s retiring chief scientist said?
“the later governments (leave) it, the harder it (will) be to combat. The [current] variation we are seeing in temperature or rainfall is double the rate of the average. That suggests that we are going to have more droughts, we are going to have more floods, we are going to have more sea surges and we are going to have more storms. These are the sort of changes that are going to affect us in quite a short time scale.”
Prof Beddington’s words are a stark warning to us all. So what should we do?
Looking after the natural environment should be priority and landscape really needs to be put at the top of any government agenda- Breeam, CSH and other initiatives are all a start in the right direction, but this all needs to be continued to “retrofit” all spaces so that they deliver the maximum ecosystem benefits and services in the short term and also bring us the long term time climate change slow down benefit too. Win, win.
Planting more trees; Land vision have planted thousands of trees in the last 25 years through their designs and schemes for large and small projects throughout South East England; these are all on school and college sites, public land such as Parks, highways and on private estates, Care Homes grounds, recreation areas, road verges and in large and small woodlands. We need to continue this.
By replenishing planting in local communities, flooding such as flash flood rates will be slowed, causing less damage to property and saving lives. Trees and leaf litter slow water flows and allow people time to act when flash floods strike. SUDS design of drainage, ponds and lakes will help.
Ecosystem services and Landscape services provided by all the projects Landvision work on are vital in combating climate change; by carbon capture – to slow rates of climate change.
Projects which boost local health by adding greenery, bird song strengthen health of our communities. Planting trees raises house prices by at least 10%. Leafy suburbs are desirable places to live in but also we can create better urban environments by judicious tree and planting schemes which boost everyone’s sense of well being, whether they live in a city or a large town. For help and advice to start your own local project, saving you time and money, fill out the contact page or phone 01892 782200.