Catastrophic climate change looms and we've a well researched document to hammer home the point. At 507 pages, A Climatic Atlas of European Breeding Birds is not light reading and it weighs something in the region of 3 kg too, so it's a heavy book in every sense.
The headline finding is that by the end of this Century, many bird populations will be forced 550 km north east, squeezing suitable habitats towards the pole and leading to some species following the dodo in to glass cases at the Natural History Museum.
As species migrate to find areas that suit them, we'll also see a new variety of species moving in to southerly areas of the UK from mainland Europe. London will see species such as the bright yellow member of the finch family, the serin, appearing in gardens. We'll also find new species in our parks and public spaces, like the hoopoe [pictured right] and black kite, commonly seen in India. Maybe we could rename our capital Little Delhi to fit its new climate and wildlife? On the plus side, the changed climate will be good news for black redstarts. London is a bit of a stronghold for them. They colonised after the Second World War, taking advantage of the rubble-strewn bombsites. As development has swallowed more and more of these Brownfield sites the redstart has seen its population squeezed. The change in climate will favour this species and it could rise from the ashes of catastrophe once again.
I suppose all clouds do have silver linings, but we shouldn't ignore the dirty, big mass of cloud contained by the sliver of silver. This book is a wake up call to add to the many other alarms being sounded. Like swans, the RSPB is thrashing furiously below the water to convince those with the power to change policies or set and enforce national and international targets. We're making plenty of public noise too and have devised strategies and tactics to alleviate and manage climate change. The sad truth is that it's not enough. We need more support, please add your voice to ours to demand action and visit our climate change web-pages to see how your individual actions are as important as collective action.
If you want to talk to us in person, visit stand UK9 at Destinations at Earls Court from 31 January to 3 February to discover what we're doing on climate change and how together, we can shout louder for change.