Guardian UK: British wildlife may not survive third wet summer, warns National Trust

British wildlife may not survive third wet summer, warns National Trust
Environment charity's audit reflects the damaging effect of bad weather - and shows how climate change has put some species under threat

Steven Morris
The Guardian, Saturday 27 December 2008


A third miserable summer in parts of the UK could spell disaster for many species of insects, birdlife and mammals, the National Trust warns today.

The charity says three wet summers in a row in many regions could mean that creatures - ranging from craneflies (often called daddy-long-legs) to species of butterflies, members of the tit family, puffins and bats - may struggle to survive in some places.

Matthew Oates, a nature conservation adviser for the trust, said: "After two very poor years in a row we desperately need a good summer in 2009 - otherwise it's going to look increasingly grim for a wealth of wildlife in the UK.

"Climate change is not some future prediction of what might happen. It's happening now and having a serious impact on our countryside every year."

The warning comes in a yearly audit produced by the National Trust of how the weather in 2008 affected wildlife. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/27/national-trust-audit-wildlife-weather

And very disturbing that so many can ignore the facts.

I find myself dealing with some of the denialists, and it's just amazing to see how deliberately ignorant and delusional they have to be to keep telling themselves, simultaneously, that "It's not happening" and "What's happening isn't our fault."

The power of the programming in this nation is terrifying.

I've got neither and I've got plenty of blue tits, coal tits, chaffinches, fucking pigdeons ...lol, a lone hawk and a very large number of sparrows. Most of them, aside from the pigeons and the hawk, migrate between a +100 year hedge and a very large holly tree in my neighbours garden. The birds are fed constantly with bread, which they seem to prefer toasted for some odd reason, seeds and peanuts. The peanuts attract the squirrels too.

I've also got plenty of budleigha so lots of butterlies and other insects in the summer too.

The hawk helps keep the pidgeon population down - this was only about 8 feet from my backdoor :


I had fox cubs in the garden last spring too :