England’s ancient oak trees are dying in the summer’s extreme heat and dry weather, according to the Woodland Trust, with trees and ecosystems unable to adapt fast enough to the changing climate.
The heatwaves across much of Europe this summer have had a notable impact on crop growth and plant health. To cope with the extreme conditions, many trees are undergoing “early autumn”, wilting and losing their leaves early.
John Parker, the chief executive of the Arboricultural Association, said: “The signs of heat stress and dry weather is visible.”
This ‘early autumn’ happening everywhere in my area. Elder are basically done, most hazel and hawthorn are halfway there and the big mature trees are on their way now too.
I’ve also heard big trees come crashing down nearby pretty frequently the last two summers in a way I never had before. I don’t think it’s just ash trees with dieback.
I talked to a farmer who had a lot of fruit trees. I said something like: at least your trees look healthy, because the reast was looking pretty grim. He said: yes, for now, but it takes 2 years or so until you see the damage done to the trees. This stuck so hard with me and i started to see trees dying two to four years after that drought. Will be intereating to see what it look like in a few years. And by intereating i mean horrifying
Yeah it is horrifying. A big realisation for me this year is how people and other life forms can only really function in quite a narrow range of temperatures.
And even if we completely stop emitting greenhouse gases right now, everything is going to keep getting hotter unless we remove all of the excess. If that farmer’s trees do manage to recover they will only get clobbered even harder in future.
I’ve cared about the environment for a long time but it’s insane that I’ve only just understood this basic fact and that it’s no thanks to the government or mainstream media that I have. It feels like a bad trip.
