Mary Contini column - The real and emerging danger of climate change

Fires raging, extreme heatwaves, severe droughts. They were just trying to alarm us.

Unfortunately, this time, when we see images like these on our screens, they are real. We are all alarmed.

The evidence of climate change is real and extreme. It is present not only in distant lands, California, the south of France and Sicily, but also in our own backyard.

The recent Cairngorm wildfires have left an “apocalyptic scene of devastation”, according to park bosses. The fire on Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh, which took days to damp down, was the second wildfire this year.

And closer still, arson or not, the barley field on the boundary of Newhailes House practically burnt to the ground at the start of the month, resulting in the loss of 80 per cent of the barley crop. Without the heroic efforts of the fire brigade, this fire could easily have destroyed one of our most important local heritage buildings.

As a nation, we have been successfully adjusting to the climate threat so far. Scotland is producing enough clean electricity supply for our own needs and are even in line to become a major exporter.

We are managing our water supply. Scottish public ownership of water means that 66 per cent of our rivers are rated good, as opposed to just 16 per cent in England and 30 per cent in Wales. There is talk of exporting water too.

So why is it that recent policy decisions by national and local government appear to have put climate change on the back burner, pardon the pun?

Why would any policy committee or officials in power feel justified to allow anti-climate change, hyper data centres to be built anywhere near our homes and schools? It is acknowledged that they use massive amounts of electrical energy, huge quantities of water and can also raise the environmental temperature up to three degrees.

Governments can no longer promise us things are ‘going to get better’. If they bow to big tech lobbying, they absolutely will not.