Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/624751
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY 2016 16 MARTINA BORG THE urgency of facing up to cli- mate change will surely have been impressed on the general pub- lic since leaders claimed history was made at inking a deal at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. The sceptics shrugged at the triumphalism of clinching agreement to keep the planet's surface temperature from rising more than 1.5ºC above pre- industrial levels: the non-binding deal could breed the complacency that makes disaster inevitable. Forget the bad news and look out the window. This is some fantastic weather to be having in January. Gorgeous sun out in the mornings, cosy warm afternoons. Is this what the onset of climate change could be? Does it become normal to try and remember whether Christ- mas 'should be' a cold af- fair, or weather it was always this pleasant in January, the month whose freezing climes make it the most fearful month in one such Mal- tese idiom (to fear something as much the January cold)? But it's this effort at remembering what the weather should feel like – in winter – that makes this kind of 'climate change anxiety' be- come all the more palpable. Even in 2014, the GRTU regis- tered a complaint with the weath- er: the sun was harming the sale of winter clothes during Christmas. Out in Manikata, where fields carpet the entire valley from Xemxija up to Ghajn Tuffieha, Ko- perattiva Rurali Manikata's Mario Cardona says he has witnessed various changes in the 20 years he has worked with the cooperative. "One of the most recent observa- tions was that I saw a Mediterra- nean Wild Thyme plant (Saghtar) flowering some weeks ago," he said, adding that it was custom- ary for the plant to flower closer to warmer months, namely in May. His other colleagues in the co-op say they have noticed a trend over recent years for citrus trees such as tangerines to bloom as late as December, as opposed to their usual October and early November deadline. "It's this untimely bloom- ing that often results in ex- cessive stress for the trees, given that the weather of- ten cools suddenly, which means the fruit is unable to form properly," Cardona says. "These trees also tend to go through periods of rest once the temperature cools down a bit, to relieve some of the stress and ultimately prepare for the spring. Al- though the reasons for these de- lays and changes in life cycles may not be so clear cut, it is undeniable that the extensive sunny periods and relative dryness of this past month may have had an effect." But a check with the Meteoro- logical Office's records suggests the jury is still out on this one: this December's 14.6ºC has been within the norm. "It is normal for December that the Maltese Is- lands have a maximum tempera- ture varying between 16 to 17.5 degrees," MIA's met office said, adding that the maximum average for the month had reached 17.7 degrees. Independent weather forecast- ers FirstMalta say that the warm weather comes from an anticy- clone which has been stagnant over the central Mediterranean for the last nine weeks. The tem- peratures won't break any records for De- cember, which in 1987 graced the island with 24.9ºC weather. But met office data also reveals that there was signifi- cantly less rain- fall over previous years, with rainfall reaching an average of 105mm in Decem- ber. Cardona explains that this particular aridity is itself having negative effects on non-ir- rigated crops, while irrigated crops will require extensive amounts of water from the national water ta- ble rather than being able to rely on rainfall. "When it does rain, it's pouring a lot in relatively short periods, which often means the top layers of dry soil gets dredged away." Joe Sciberras, an organic farmer, has also witnessed how the chang- es in the weather had led to grad- ual but evident changes in agri- cultural practices, with vegetables like marrows growing practically all year long. "Farmers are already planting their melons and water- melons," he says, adding that the warm weather had provided some farmers with an excellent harvest of strawberries, although they are typically harvested in spring. "The change can also be seen in olive trees, with harvests from non-indigenous trees yielding three differently sized fruits dur- ing the harvesting season. "This is evidence of the fact that the olive is finding the optimum temperatures to develop its fruits more than once a year," Sciberras says, while cautioning that this in- evitably causes unnecessary stress to the tree, it is locally traditionally harvested in May. But Sciberras insists that this phenomenon is not evident in in- digenous trees, which would have grown accustomed to the local temperatures. "A further change which has affected olives, but this time not so negatively, is the ab- sence of the olive fruit fly," he says of the considerably troublesome pest which affects the quality and quantity of fruit produced, typical- ly thriving in cool and humid envi- ronments. According to Sciberras, the short winter periods ultimate- ly mean that the insect is active for ever briefer periods. "Alternately however, the Mediterranean fruit fly is thriving, given the fact that it is healthiest when the warmth persists," he says. "And whereas before insects were typically most active towards the end of June, the prolonged heat means that they might even survive the winter months." And although new, atypical in- sects have been noticed in recent years, Sciberras says they aren't cause for alarm. "The problem rises when these alien species find optimum environments and be- gin to spread unchecked due to the absence of natural enemies," he says referring to the red palm weevil, which has killed over 4,500 palm trees since it appeared in Malta in 2007, and the Asian tiger mosquito, which has the ability of transmitting pathogens like yel- low fever and dengue fever among others. Under the sea The same situation seems to be happening in the seas surrounding Malta, according to marine biolo- gist and researcher Alan Deidun, who explains that rising tempera- tures were causing the Mediter- ranean to become a tropical sea resembling the Indian and Pacific oceans, rather than a sub-tropical sea. "As a result, species which nor- mally preferred warmer seas, were finding the right conditions to sur- vive in the Mediterranean, while others that preferred cooler wa- ters are having to resort to deeper waters." Deidun says alien species always used to find their ways into the Mediterranean through routes News Enjoying January's warmth and drought? MARTINA BORG spoke to farmers and biologists to find out how uncharacteristically warm winters are wreaking their effect on the soil and in the sea Where have the cold and rain gone? Manikata farmes have reported a trend over recent years for citrus trees such as tangerines to bloom as late as December, as opposed to their usual October and early November deadline. Organic farmer Joe Sciberras says farmers are planting their melons and watermelons and that the the warm weather provides them with an excellent harvest of strawberries, although they are typically harvested in spring. Mario Cardona