RSPB Scotland is supporting the 'Show the Love' campaign organised by Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, which kicked off on 7 February and runs until Valentine's Day encouraging people to speak up for the special places and wildlife they don't want to lose to climate change. Jim Densham, from RSPB Scotland brings us this latest blog on the initiative. 

Climate change is real and happening now. It is affecting and threatening the wildlife and special places we love in Scotland and around the globe. That’s why we are involved in the Show the Love campaign in the week running up to Valentine’s Day. Show the Love is all about saying that there are things we all love and don’t want to lose because of climate change, now or in the future.

This year the campaign is focussing on special places because the places we love are threatened by climate change. If you are like me, your favourite places are in the countryside and about being in nature. We would like you to go out this coming weekend or on Valentine’s Day to your favourite place (as if you need the encouragement), take a photo or a selfie and post it on social media with the #ShowTheLove hashtag. If that’s not for you, you can wear and share a green heart, or one of the other ideas to show the love.

In Scotland, we are doing something special this year by showing our MSPs that we care for wildlife and vulnerable people, and the effect climate change is having on them. With our partners in the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland coalition we are asking members and supporters to write to, or meet with, their local MSPs to ask them to support a stronger Climate Change Plan and show the love for Scotland’s future. It’s not as hard as it sounds and everything you need to know is here.

The Climate Change Plan is Government’s masterplan of policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions and outlines how we will meet a 66% reduction in these by 2032 (based on 1990 levels). It sets out an attractive vision of the kind of low-carbon society we could be living in by then, however we are concerned about the plan’s lack of concrete new actions to deliver it.

At RSPB Scotland we have been busy analysing the Government’s proposals, especially the Land Use and Agriculture chapters. Partly, this is because this is where most of our biodiversity is found and secondly these sectors have often been slow to change. Nearly a quarter of our greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland come from businesses and activities using rural land, e.g. farming and forestry - this is only exceeded by the electricity generation and transport sectors. There are things to welcome in this Climate Change Plan, especially a commitment to restore peatland habitats to a healthy state. This will halt loss of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from the damaged peat but also provide vital habitat for birds like the curlew and hen harrier.

Unfortunately the agriculture section of the Plan isn’t so ambitious. Farmers aren’t being asked to act quickly and the Government’s plans don’t show enough leadership. We want all farmers to produce good quality healthy food in a way which is climate-smart and wildlife friendly. The Climate Change Plan must require all farmers to do the bare minimum – to test their soils and to plan their fertiliser use. Budgeted and precise use of fertiliser is a key way for farmers to help the climate, it’s also good for their profits, so makes sense.    

If Government gets this Climate Change Plan right, by helping nature and managing the countryside in the right way, it will reduce our national ghg footprint as well as providing homes for nature. Let’s show Government how important this is to us by getting involved and showing the love this February, for nature and special places.