Climate of change

Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, England), May 29, 2007

Sir David Attenborough joins HSBC group chairman Stephen Green tomorrow to launch a new global project to tackle climate change.

One of the latest surveys is surely proof of the urgent need for action.

Should anyone have been in any doubt about what exactly is at stake, it will remove the blinkers from their eyes.

Put simply, spring arrived a month early in Britain, although you might not believe it given the bank holiday weather!

The nationwide study of 24,000 wildlife and plant sightings found that butterflies came a month earlier and frog spawn appeared two weeks before it was expected.

We've only to look outside our doors in Huddersfield to confirm that the findings are correct.

Worrying signs indeed that something is not right.

Experts from the Woodland Trust and the BBC Springwatch programme who conducted the survey are right to say it is a cause for concern that the changes are so rapid.

The study shows that global warming is a reality rather than a remote concept that is difficult to grasp. It is all around.

The challenge for us all is to make sure the effects are mitigated as much as possible.

We must no longer pay lip service to the issue but must insist on action to safeguard our world for future generations.