Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘We’re already helping hand newstrade in a climate emergency – it’s changing State Benefits Advice our wildlife’
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It’s often easy to dismiss climate change in a one-dimensional way. “What’s there not to like about longer, hotter summers?’ many say. Or “any changes will happen years in the future”.
But to do so would be failing to see the full picture – a short-sighted approach which chooses to ignore an impact that is already being seen right here in Kent.
From new, potentially dangerous pests moving to our warmer shores, to vital ecologic sites being washed away by rising tides, the changes it has already set in motion are being seen and seem destined only to intensify. As the RSPB explains: “Forget walking into a climate emergency. We’re already in one – and so is our wildlife.
“We know spring is arriving earlier, meaning wildlife is having to rapidly adapt to keep up. “Blue tits, for example, are having to change habits formed over millions of years of evolution to make sure they time their breeding with the emergence of caterpillars, which arrive when the trees come into leaf.
“If they get their timings wrong, it means there are fewer caterpillars to go around. “Less food then means that fewer chicks are likely to survive. Many species that are highly adapted to their ecological niche are not able to make changes to adapt, with disastrous consequences. “Species such as little terns which nest on beaches are increasingly at risk of rising sea levels and summer storm surges. “Elsewhere, breeding wading birds such as lapwing are falling victim to summer floods when
nests can be washed away. “But equally they’re vulnerable to drought.
“This reduces the amount of worms and insects for them to eat and makes it harder for them to find what remains in the hard ground.”
The rise in numbers of little egrets – once a rare visitor from the Mediterranean, now a common site on Kent’s coastline and nature reserves – is thought to be attributed to the rising temperatures.
The same can be said of spoonbills.
Key habitats for migrati n g b i r d s s u c h a s s a l t marshes, which can be found
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around our coastline - most notably Romney Marsh, Sandwich, Pegwell Bay and the Thames and Medway estuaries - are also under threat of rising sea temperatures. Hugely important from an ecological standpoint, these areas which sit between the sea and land can not only help reduce flood risks but even capture carbon and store it. But they face being washed away.
Researchers at Durham University have suggested the rising sea levels could see saltmarshes completely disappear in the south east as early as 2040.
Dr Angela Hibbert, head of sea level and ocean climate at the National Oceanography Centre, a research hub in Earth and ocean science, says: “We are committed to a certain level of sea level rise now. “That's because the oceans respond to warming climates over quite long time scales. “Warming which occurred a significant time ago is still having an impact on the oceans. “Sea levels will continue to rise for decades to come because of what we've already done. That's unavoidable now.” And it’s not just birds which are seeing a change.
“A lot of species here are getting really buffeted by those temperature changes,” explains Ian Rickards, area manager for the Kent Wildlife Trust and responsible for its nature reserves.
“That will be forcing lots of species to move out of Kent and move to the sort of climes they can cope with, where it's cooler and damper.
“But it will also mean potentially we'll be bringing new species in from the continent too. “Kent will be the first place that picks up new species that wouldn't be able to live here before.
“But as the weather improves for them they’ll come and fill those gaps.”
‘So what?’, you might think. We lose some insects and gain some new ones.
But our established insects are all part of the delicate ecological balance we have come to rely on. They are key to the food chain and any new species moving to our shores bring with them a potential threat.
“Some can be quite problematic,” Ian Rickards adds. “For example, we're seeing midge species which are coming across the continent bringing with things like Bluetongue disease, which is then affecting our cattle.
“That's something that's hit us this winter for the first time.” Bluetongue, which does not pose a threat to human health or food safety but can affect livestock, reducing productivity, was detected for the first time in cattle and sheep in Kent (in the Sandwich Bay area), Suffolk and Norfolk in November. It resulted in temporary control zones – where the movement of livestock is restricted – being thrown up around the
areas. They were lifted in February.
Farming, of course, is on the frontline when it comes to the impact the changing weather patterns deliver.
Alan Clifton-hall has been farming, primarily arable, on Romney Marsh for years, as well as being the NFU East regional board chairman. He explains: “It’s certainly changed over the last 10 years. “We're looking at different crops and with that also different pests and diseases and insects that affect our crops. “Within our farm we're looking at crops they're growing in northern France, Belgium and Holland and asking can we pull those crops over here? “Flax is a good example. It’s like linseed, which has been grown over here for years, but flax needs longer stems - needs a warmer client.
“On the flip side, we've been growing rape for 40-odd years. “It’s probably down 75% across the county as a whole now. And that’s partly because of the way insects have come into the crop, driven by climate change.
“It’s been driven further north. “It's caught us by surprise. “What's not helped us, as an industry, is that at the same time climate change is happening there's been a great environmental drive for organic farms. “The danger, not just to farming but the population as a whole, is significant with that. “If the country went 100% organic farming we wouldn't
feed ourselves - people would go hungry. It's how do you find that balance?”
In 2021, the Met Office published a study which examined the effect of climate change on the dairy and potato farming sectors over the next 30 to 50 years.
The research found heat stress in dairy cattle is projected to increase significantly in key dairy regions of the UK. The study also covered the climate change impacts on the potato sector due to late blight, a fungal disease affecting potato crops which occurs in warm, humid weather.
The Met Office explained: “Both food for cattle, crops for humans, and potato growing will all be threatened by increased drought in the future, which we tend to experience when we have particularly hot dry summers.”
The author of the report, Dr Freya Garry, explained: “Projections show potential for major climate change impacts on UK farming.
“Our study found that future dairy cattle in parts of the south east may be exposed to heat stress for an extra two months per year.
“At the moment, cattle in the south east experience around a week per year of these stressful conditions. “Increased persistent dry weather during the spring to autumn growing season of potatoes will also impact potato production, with less land suitable for rainfed potato growing, and
larger demands for irrigation.” Any strain on dairy or meat, for example, will force more importation – which will equate to higher costs to consumers. There’s also the added complication of farmers’ use of water supplies which can come under considerable strain during the longer, drier summers we have experienced in recent years. Of course, there are some benefits of the warmer temperatures the county has experienced. Ask someone 40 years ago what they thought of the Kent wine industry and they’d be flabbergasted we had one. Today, the wines grown from the grapes in our vineyards compete against the very best worldwide.
That’s entirely due to our changing conditions. Stephen Skelton, Master of Wine, is seen as the founding father of Kent’s winemaking industry having planted the first vines at what would become Chapel Down, in Tenterden, in 1977.
"The change in varieties,” he explains, “is totally down to climate change.
"From the late 1990s onwards, the climate really started to show and the sugar levels rose, the quality rose, and people started to take notice.
"I grew pinot noir and chardonnay varieties in 1980 and they never ripened."
So while we can toast the success of that sector, it may only be providing us with the alcohol to drown our sorrows given the challenges elsewhere.
‘Sea levels will continue to rise for decades because of what we’ve already done. That’s unavoidable now…’