Trip reports

Report on Indoor Meeting - Birds and The Beasts - the likely impact of global warming on wildlife - talk by Dr. David Golding

Tuesday, 10 June 2008

Brian Moorhead opened the meeting by welcoming everyone, especially the three new people who were present. He thanked everyone who had offered their support in assisting at the Group's 40th birthday celebrations next year. The response so far has been very encouraging. Brian then introduced our guest speaker. Dr Golding, recommended by one of our members, was involved in research at Newcastle University for many years. Since retiring he has devoted a great deal of time to working on issues affecting global warming and climate change and is much respected in these fields.

It was soon obvious that Dr Golding feels passionately about his subject and he gave a hard-hitting talk on the dangers we face, although certainly not without humour. He began by drawing a comparison with the abolition of slavery and noted that this took 18 years to bring about. We now have less time than this and the poor of the world will be affected first. The current level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is well above recorded natural variations and there is overwhelming consensus among genuine climate scientists that its production from burning fossil fuels is the main cause of global warming. We're approaching the "tipping point" after which its effects will be irreversible. At this point Sir David Attenborough was quoted who said "How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say 'I knew about this and I did nothing'".

Dr Golding went on to consider the effects that recent warming has had on biological systems and used the earlier timings of spring events and the shift in ranges of plants and animals towards polar regions as examples. Not far from us there has been a decline in puffin numbers on the Isle of May and, somewhat further afield, a population crash of emperor penguins has been blamed on a reduction in the amount of Antarctic krill due to rising sea temperatures.

The talk ended with the question, what do we do about it? In summary, urgent international action is needed and we must invest in helping wildlife more resilient to global warming. The audience was left in no doubt by our speaker that it was already too late for many species. Questions were invited and many members took the opportunity. After a lively discussion the evening was concluded by resonant quotes from both William Wilberforce and Al Gore. Dr Golding was thanked for a very interesting and thought-provoking talk. I know I left a little less complacent about global warming and I suspect others did too.

Graham Leslie