'How we act over climate change will define us' say Grantham RiverCare's Ian Simmons and David Martin

The incredibly important subject of climate change is the focus of the inaugural column by Grantham RiverCare co-leads Ian Simmons and David Martin. They write:

Your editor has invited us, as co-leads of Grantham RiverCare, to write a regular column about the environment from our perspective as volunteers.

We would like to start by recognising how lucky we are to live in a town that has a two-mile stretch of the River Witham flowing through it, just yards from the High Street.

This, with its surrounding banks, meadows and parkland, offers us all the opportunity to appreciate the natural beauty on our doorsteps.

We have, sharing the space with us, a wide variety of wildlife. In the river itself are a range of coarse fish, including brown trout whose breeding grounds (redds) can be identified by keen observers.

Kingfishers are often spotted as their azure blue plumage flashes past at incredible speed. Those lucky enough have reported watching them fish from overhanging branches.

Otters have returned to town and a little egret can often be seen just off Belton Lane. New berms (artificial river banks) have been constructed recently to enhance the river’s flow, keeping it’s bed clear of silt, encouraging the protected white clawed crayfish and other invertebrates.

Over the coming weeks, we will look beyond our favoured stretch of river to examine further afield.

We are constantly bombarded with warnings about climate change. What do these mean for Grantham? What can we do about it as an individual, town, county or country?

A case can be made to view the future with guarded optimism because, while weather patterns become less predictable, the realisation is growing that human behaviour change is essential.

As important as political acceptance of climate change is, the groundswell of public opinion increases, recognising the science and the dire warnings of observations from the field.

The almost biblical stories that fill the media – drought, floods, famine, pestilence – are things we can no longer afford, literally, to ignore.

While Grantham itself may not be impacted by future environmental change as much as some parts of the UK and more distant countries, we are linked to the rest of the world by a thread of the common, delicate natural world. Whether it is the floods in Somerset and Cumbria or those in Pakistan where 30 per cent of their country was affected, wildfires in California or closer to home east of London, the symptoms are there for all to see.

How we act will define us as a species.