Out of time

I'm seeing mushrooms I'd not normally expect to encounter until mid/late September; for example these Hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum repandum), which  look like they've already been up for a week or so. Out in the woods expectation clashes with reality, I'm expecting to find summer though all my senses tell me it's autumn out here. And why wouldn't they. 

 

We've just experienced the 6th wettest July on record, though our sensationalist media, fixated with the extremes of climate change, the flames and floods, have said very little (as far as I know). I'm not suggesting that extreme weather episodes aren't important or newsworthy, nor that we wont be effected by the consequences of extreme weather, though I don't think they'll define 'our' climate change experience. No, ours, extreme episodes aside, is going to manifest in systemic change to environments and ecosystems, brought on by an increase in periods of unseasonal weather and the weakening of fixed seasons; wet when it should be dry, warm when it should be cold and vice versa. The impact on our insect, floral and faunal communities both wild and domesticated cannot be underestimated, nor can the impact on the natural cycles they are we rely upon. I think the media are missing an opportunity to bring everyday climate change at home into focus. Moreover, media silence has created a vacuum quickly and easily filled by mocking climate deniers plying their superficially compelling (under the circumstances) 'climate change, puh' narrative. Silly really.