Gardeners tend to be more aware of the effects of the weather than most. We have already seen big changes in the climate already towards hotter, drier summers and milder wetter winters.

But we are also seeing an increase in storms and heavy rain:

• The 1990s was the warmest decade in the UK since records began in the 1660s.
• Four of the five warmest years on record have been in the last 10 years
• Mean temperatures in central England have risen by about 1°C since 1900 (the climatic equivalent of moving from southern England to mid France today).
• The growing season has lengthened by about a month in central England since 1900, with the onset of spring occurring around two to three weeks earlier than just 30 years ago.
• Annual summer rainfall has fallen by around 20 per cent since about 1900.
• Winter rainfall is greater. The four wettest winters in south-west England since records began have all been in the last 10 years.
• A larger proportion of winter precipitation falls in heavy rain showers today than did 50 years ago.

*Figures from the UK Climate Impacts Programme and the Met Office

Global climate change is driven by emissions of greenhouse gases – mainly carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. Carbon is stored in fossil fuels, the sea, living matter and the atmosphere.

The actions of individuals are responsible for over 40 per cent of the UK’s carbon footprint. We all have an opportunity to reduce the impacts we have on climate change through the choices we make in our lives. Yorkshire Bank has pledged to become Carbon Neutral by 2010

Back to top

The future?

How our climate will change depends on the future level of carbon dioxide and other gas emissions in the atmosphere.

Figures announced in June 2009 by Defra and the UK Climate Impacts Programme reveal that the UK is currently on an emissions course that could result in a 2.5°C - 4.2°C rise in mean summer temperatures, with a staggering 40 per cent decrease in levels of summer rainfall predicted for southern areas, and a 33 per cent increase in winter rainfall predicted for western areas by 2080.*

Each degree of warming causes a lengthening of the growing season in the UK by between 1.5 weeks in the north and 3 weeks in the south.

A 4°C average temperature rise could give southern England a climate not too different from parts of south western Portugal now.It may sound attractive but it would mean a radically different living and working environment to what we now have, and would probably involve major shortages of fresh-water and disruption to food supplies, loss of many of our much-loved species of wildlife, major changes to our gardens, and more flooding and storm surges and more.

We all have to prepare forthese big changes now and at the same time get on with practical actions to reduce our emissions to prevent more severe impacts in the UK and for the rest of the world.

Thankfully, there are lots of simple ways we can all reduce our impact on the environment and still have a beautiful garden.