Blame climate change for horse chestnut leaf miner?

GuidesWeek for week ending November 29th, 2008

Today I attended the Annual General Meeting of the Hampshire Hogs Cricket Club. On the agenda was the weighty business of what should be done about the clutch of three horse chestnut trees that shade the pavilion.

Not so green this summer

At the height of last summer, the leaves on these trees turned brown, a disturbing deviation of nature that blotted our photogenic setting. The culprit is the horse chestnut leaf miner moth which has arrived from the warmer parts of Europe and is munching its way across the south of England.

Emotions are running high for these much loved trees. A fortnight ago an MP demanded a debate in parliament. In reply the Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman, pronounced that “it’s partly to do with the effect of climate change……and why we must step up all-party action on climate change”.

Although I’m in sympathy with Ms Harman’s verdict, I’m beginning to worry about the tendency for explanations of current natural phenomena to slip in a mention of climate change. It’s but a short step to a media headline claiming that the demise of horse chestnuts is caused by global warming. Opponents of political action to stabilise the climate feed off such sloppy science as voraciously as the moth consumes our leaves.

You may argue that climate change denial is a spent force, carried senseless from the ring after the knockout Nobel award to Al Gore and the IPCC. The next US president is surely despatching soothing messages to the Poznan climate change conference starting this week.

every one of the top six books attacks “global warming hysteria”

What makes me uneasy is the global warming section of our OneWorld Bookstore. This is constructed from Amazon’s sales ranking of books on the subject sold in the US. Every one of the top six books attacks “global warming hysteria”, led by Christopher Horner’s bestselling “Red Hot Lies” which “explodes as many myths as Al Gore promotes”.

I’m thinking of the survey that concluded that Barack Obama was elected by voters whose overwhelming concern is the state of the US economy. Does the election result tell us anything about the alignment of American public opinion with Obama’s incisive policies on global warming?

We shouldn’t put too much trust in Amazon as a political weathervane. But it’s something of a relief to find that the top ten books in our UK climate change store include only one title from the denial camp.

Nevertheless I would feel more comfortable if Harriet Harman could rehearse some amended phraseology….“climate science tells us that the ecosystem of southern England will change significantly by the end of this century if the world fails to cut back greenhouse gas emissions. It is uncertain whether horse chestnut trees will be winners or losers in this transition but it is expedient to create a low carbon economy very quickly in order to protect our familiar landscape”.

I wouldn’t dare mention climate politics at a cricket meeting but the burghers of the club committee wisely opted for light remedial treatment for one tree. You can take your choice whether the impending battle for survival of these old chestnuts is nature, red in tooth and claw, or an unsettling trailer for our own fate.

******

OneWorld Books on Global Warming: US Store and UK Store

Join in the Poznan Climate Change Conference with OneClimate

OneWorld Guides for reference:
Climate Change; Carbon Fallout - the impact on developing countries
OneWorld Guides updated this week:
Nepal; Argentina

******

	top of the page

Article Search e-mail this page Terms of Use About OneWorld UK