Victoria's Green Matters - 26th July 2012

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury: So, how does your garden grow? After a cold and very slow start to the growing season, we now have such rapid growth in the garden that it is difficult to keep up with although there have been many failures. It was consoling to see that even gardening guru, Monty Don, has had a virtually non-existent carrot crop!

It can all be blamed on our awful British weather but, of course, it isn't just in the UK that the weather has been so bad. A large proportion of northern Europe has suffered also. France, in particular, has had a dreadful start to the summer with only the Mediterranean beaches baking under very high temperatures.

Climate scientists have been warning about such changes in the weather for many years. Our weather is very much influenced by the jet stream which circulates the globe at around 12,000 metres altitude. In summer the jet stream usually passes to the North of the British Isles and this means that Scandinavia is wet and the whole of France is fine and dry. This year the jet stream is circulating much further south than normal, along the shores of the English Channel, preventing warm air coming up from North Africa. Also, the tropical currents of the Pacific, El Niňo and La Niňa, which have an effect on the mainland European climate, are not active.

All these changes affect our weather and will continue to do so if we do not take steps to limit our carbon emissions.

Victoria Nicholls.
Transition Town Deal.