Issues around water have never been far from the headlines this year, with the flood-related deaths in Valencia just the most tragic (thousands of deaths from climate-related events in poorer countries go less reported).
Closer to home, some English counties (including Staffordshire) suffered three times their average rainfall in September, according to the Met Office. Flooding in the south of the Moorlands made the local news; across the country the changing weather patterns have slashed farm yields, eroded soils and flooded fields.
With the second worst harvest on record, around £1bn of food production was lost.
Weather is complex, of course, and there are some special factors at play (the world is still in the wetter part of the El Nino/La Nina cycle). But there are some simple underlying figures. For every one degree rise in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 7% more moisture.
According to the internationally respected World Weather Attribution group, the exceptional UK rainfall from October 2023 to March 2024 was made four times more likely by climate change (and 20% heavier).
Ultimately, the only way to prevent these weather patterns becoming even more severe is to stop the pace of global warming – climate mitigation – but as these events show, climate change is already here.
That’s why adaption – making people and places more resilient to the effects of climate change are – has steadily crept up the agenda.
Read more: Spotlight Autumn 2024 - Water, water everywhere, nor any...
Like most other organisations, we at MCA have been reviewing our use of the social media platform X (formally known as Twitter). We didn't use it heavily but thought it should be available for our members. In the light of recent developments, we have now decided to leave. The next question is, do we look for a platform to take its place? Some have suggested Bluesky, others that we just let it go.
What do you think?
If you'd like to express an opinion, please click below:
Our Nature team has been busy getting out the news on our Staffordshire Wildlife Trust-led Nature in Your Neighbourhood project. MCA is a partner, alongside Keele University, OUTSIDE Arts, SCVYS youth service and Staffs Moorlands Council. Among the many events we have attended recently was a local branch meeting of the Wildlife Trust’s where the subject was 'Life in The Ravines’ a replanting project to recover from the effects of ash dieback in the valleys of the Peak District National Park. Here is Val Riley (recently awarded an MBE for her voluntary service for nature) pointing to a potential site she has identified for Nature in Your Neighbourhood.
The first ever Leek Textile Week was a stunning success, with its range of talks, walks, installations, exhibitions and interactive workshops attracting artists and performers from all over the country. The brainchild of long-time MCA member and supporter Carry Somers, the week had a strong theme of sustainability running throughout it. Australian writer Clare Press read from ‘Wear Next’, her latest book on the future of sustainable fashion, at an evening of poetry and prose organised by Mark. A number of MCA members had taken part in the associated woad and indigo growing project, including Debbie Potts, pictured here with her own-grown indigo.
Mike and Mark both attended the annual Staffordshire Climate Expo at Uttoxeter Racecourse in September. Ably organised by the Globe Foundation, keynote speakers at the event included Michaela Strachan and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, to whom Mike gave a sustainably-foraged recipe for blackberry whiskey. There was a great range of stalls and attendees and both Mike and Mark made new contacts for MCA and swapped progress and ideas with old friends.
A great day was had by one and all: talking about the Nature in Your Neighbourhood project, playing our Land Use Game, exploring greenhouse gases (in the pink buckets) and of course making wonderful wildlife masks. Huge thanks to Belinda Hargreaves for organising such a tremendous event and also inviting us to have a stall.
- Show Time
- Warslow and Foxlowe Repair Cafes
- Our AGM - and Ecobrick Progress
- Leek and District Show 2024
- Website Upgrade
- Spotlight Summer 2024 - Renewable Energy on our Turf?
- HuG 2024
- Spotlight Spring 2024 - Hope Springs Eternal…
- Spotlight Winter 2024 - Conversation with Karen
- Our Beautiful Wild: Young Voices For Nature
- Spotlight Autumn 2023 - Making Moorlands Houses Warmer
- The Stoke-on-Trent Sustainability Summit