SUMMER in East Lothian is always busy with plenty of music festivals, outdoor activities and long sunlit evenings that seem to never end.
Keen to enjoy this time at home, we postponed our family holiday for a trip to Sicily during the October break.
Before leaving, we received a concerned email from our holiday company. They wanted to forewarn us that the area we had booked had suffered from extreme wildfires at the end of August and, although everything was now settled, the lush vegetation we would have enjoyed was completely burnt and the landscape was blackened. We decided to go anyway. The thought of a final blast of sunshine before winter was too tempting.
When we arrived, we discovered that not only was the landscape badly scarred but the guests previously staying in our accommodation had had to escape from the fires by being rescued from the seafront by the Coastguard.
Fortunately, our holiday was not spoiled. We enjoyed unseasonably hot temperatures, 28-32C, and not a splash of rain. Only when a small wildfire flared up nearby, which the authorities quickly doused, were we reminded of the hazards this area of Europe is experiencing.
While we were away, Storm Babet wrought havoc along the coast of East Lothian, even smashing through the harbour defences in North Berwick and pulling back into the sea the tons of reclaimed sand that had been carefully managed over the last three years on East Beach in Dunbar. And the storms are not over. Houses near rivers and seafronts have been threatened with more flooding all over the county and winter has not even started.
This is all sobering. Scientists are warning that these extreme, unseasonal and dangerous weather events are now a part of our present and future.
Even if net-zero targets are achieved within the timescale set, the correction of the weather will take several generations. The dangers and random risk to life are here.
It is perhaps time to not only prepare and batten down the hatches but take seriously our personal responsibility in helping to counteract global warming.
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