Snow and Climate Change

As the folks in Britain already know, there has been snow, the most significant snowfall for eighteen years. Even around the world other people are aware of this as it has been widely reported as well as our inability to cope with this. In the reports comparisons have been made with the winter of 1962/63 when feet of snow fell, settled and stayed. Even talking to local people they have made the same comparison and while the major aspect of the conversations and the reporting has been about the way that people coped better then, I wondered about the conditions that caused this weather event.

The weather patterns were such a close match as to be identical. The difference between 1963 and 2009 is climate change. Had we not had the effect of Human Induced Climate Change, this winter could well have been as severe as it was in 1963. I have already heard people saying that we need more global warming to stop us having to suffer from snow. The reality is that here in Britain we have seen far less snow as a result of Human Induced Climate Change.

As the weather will fluctuate from one year to the next, even with a stable climate, this lack of snow in past years has impacted on our lives already. The most obvious one being the lack of preparedness for this snow event, but it is the effect upon the natural environment that the effect is less obvious. I have posted before about the way that birds are trying to breed earlier in the year. This is because it is temperature that triggers breading behaviour. But this effect of Human Induced Climate Change leads to lower breeding success as the grubs of insects that the birds rely upon have their breeding cycle triggered by day length. Therefore, there is now a two week difference between the two interlinked natural events.

A further but even more important aspect of not having cold winters is the pest insect species that are now surviving winter. While this winter will have killed of parasite carrying midges for instance, in previous years agriculture and human health has been impacted by this. As a result of these warmer wetter winters that have become the norm, the range of insects from northern Africa and Southern Europe are extending their range further north. This extension equates to around twenty five kilometres per year.

The lack of hard frosts means that soils have to be tilled harder, leading to a loss of fertility in the soil. This also has the impact of soil pests and dieses surviving each year. This leads to the increased use of chemicals to control soil pests and dieses adding to the loss of fertility of our soils. Equally, this increased use of chemicals is adding to the fall in populations of what were once common birds.

While I have sympathy for the people impacted by the severe weather, Human Induced Climate Change is having a greater disruption on our lives than the short term effects of having proper seasons.