How climate change affects our lives

By Emily Smith

Date: 24/11/05

Governments may argue over the relative dangers of a 1.5- and a 2-degree celsius increase in world temperatures, or the difference between cutting CO2 emissions by 6% and 8%, but does climate change really affect our everyday lives? WWF, the environmental group, says it does.

The environmental lobbyists this week (22 November) invited EU volunteers to Brussels to explain why they believe rising global temperatures are threatening their jobs, their bank balance, even the very different areas they live in. Here is what some of them had to say:

• "Out there in the woods you can feel the difference, even without knowing the alarming facts of climate science. The Nineties have been the warmest decade in climate history, and this was obvious to anyone who lives in touch with nature. In my forests the consequences for spruce trees are especially dramatic. Spruce is the backbone of the German forest industry, covering 28% of Germany's forests. However, higher average temperatures and more frequent droughts due to climate change weaken these trees."

Georg Sperber, forester, Bavaria, Germany

• "The sea definitely looks bigger to us, it is a different beast. I suppose there is a perceptible change for us because I work from home, so we see two tides a day. The UK Environment Agency reinstated the shingle bank but the following winter it was punctured and broken up again. In the six years since 1999 it has happened four times; whereas it hadn't happened for 50 years before that. That is the big difference...global warming is like a double whammy because it is accelerating a natural process of erosion."

Cassian Garbett, furniture maker, Cuckmere Valley, United Kingdom

• "We've been noticing climate impacts for many years now. Unfortunately the problems have increased massively, and nowadays it's also affecting us financially. Over the past few years the seasonal cycle has changed: we go from summer to winter and from winter to summer. Spring and autumn seem to have disappeared completely, and these changes have occurred so suddenly, that they are affecting our farming cycles seriously. It seems that the weather has gone crazy."

José Luis Oliveros Zafra, farmer, Castilla La-Mancha, Spain

• "Honey al-ways had its place in an Italian buffet: it's sweet and delicious. But over the last years something has changed. Due to warmer temperatures, flowers are blooming at unusual times, which makes the bees change their behaviour. As a consequence the level of activity in the apiary has slowed down drastically. All this is not just a result of local or temporary phenomena, but definitely due to a worrying climatic trend... Let's remember what Albert Einstein once said: 'Should the honey bee ever disappear, mankind would only survive a few years beyond it'."

Giuseppe Miranti, beekeeper, Piacenza, Italy

Article reports on an initiative by environmental group WWF, trying to point out how climate change can be perceived in people's daily lives. Article is part of a European Voice Special Report: 'Climate Change (COP11 and MOP1 Conference)'.

WWF international: Climate change http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/climate_change/index.cfm

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